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THE

OTTOMAN TURKS

SELL

CBRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY FOR INDIA

London Madras Colombo Calcutta Rangoon

1915

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GENERAL EDITOR

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THE OTTOMAN TURKS

Supplied byMINAR BOOK AGENCYExporters of Books & Periodicals

i04, Ghadial)' Building, Saddar

KARACHI-3. PAKISTAN

THE OTTOMAN TURKS

BY

The Rev. CANON SELL, d.d., m.r.a.s.

FELLOW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS

AUTHOR OF 'the FAITH OF ISLAM".' THE RECENSIONS OF

THE QUR'AN ', 'THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS OF ISLAM",' THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE

QUR'AN ', 'the LIFE OF MUHAMMAD",'THE CULT OF 'aLI', 'MUSLIM

CONQUESTS IN SPAIN ", ETC.

THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY FOR INDIA

MADRAS ALLAHABAD CALCUTTA COLOMBO

1915

A

S. p. C. K. PRESS, VEPERY, MADRAS—1915

DR

c ,,

CONTENTSPAGE

I.—THE RISE OF THE EMPIRE ... ... 1

II.—THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE ... 64

III.—APPENDIX A—THE OTTOMAN SULTANS ... 127

IV.—APPENDIX B—OTTOMAN SLAVERY AS AN

IMPERIAL ASSET ... ... ... 129

V.—APPENDIX C—OTTOMAN LITERATURE ... 133

VI.—INDEX ... ... ... ... 137

Our empire is the House of Islam; from father to

son the lamp of our empire is kept burning with oil

from the hearts of the infidels.

Sultan Muhammad, the Conqueror

THE OTTOMAN TURKSI. THE RISE OF THE EMPIRE

Amongst the numerous nomad races of Central

Asia there were two great tribes—the Mongols and

the Turks—who in the thirteenth century overran

a great part of the MusHm empire and penetrated

beyond it. Hulagu Khan captured Baghdad, the

seat of the renowned 'Abbasid Khalifate, and the

Mongols soon overran the Syrian empire of Saladin,

which had come now under the rule of the Mam-luk Sultans of Egypt. The Mongols on different

occasions made several ineffectual attempts to invade

Egypt, and were repulsed by the bravery of the

Mamluks ;

' but they entered Europe and advanced

as far as Hungary. They were nomads and, as a

rule, could not settle down; so after ravaging a

country they usually retired from it. For a time,

however, they retained possessions in China, and,

as the Golden Horde, ruled in the Crimea ; but

they left no permanent mark on the Muslim empireof the Khalifate

;and so we may pass them by.

1 See The Mamluks in Egypt (C.L.S.). pp- 10, 17, 21, 34.

2 THE OTTOMAN TURKS

The other branch of these great nomad bar-

barians, the Turks, did otherwise. They supplied

the Khalifas of Baghdad with mercenary troops whosoon became the rulers of their nominal masters.

As imported slaves they attained also to royal powerin Egypt. They founded a dynasty at Ghazni and

captured Khurasan where they created the empire

of the Seljuk Turks. Then came the great Mongolinvasion under Chengiz Khan driving the Turks

further south and west. Their clans under the

names of the White and Black Weir (sheep) ex-

ercised much influence in the thirteenth century.

The Muslim empire at that time had almost

passed away from its old Arab rulers. The Mongolshad subdued Persia and advanced to the regions of

the Volga and the Ural mountains, whilst Turks

ruled in Asia Minor and Turkish Mamluks held

Egypt. Against these two Turkish powers the

Mongols could do nothing. The Seljuk Sultans of

Iconium and the Mamluks of Egypt held their own

and remained when all fear of the Mongols had

passed away. Amongst the tribes which followed

the Seljuks was one which was led by its chief

Ertoghul. It so happened that one day Ertoghul

was proceeding with a small band of men in the

direction of Anatolia, where he unexpectedly came

upon a battlefield Ângora) in which the Seljuk

Sultan was contending against a strong and deter-

mined foe. At once Ertoghul and his four hundred

'uthmAn 3

men joined in the conflict and helped to gain a

victory for the Seljuks. On another occasion also

they rendered valuable military assistance. TheSultan in return for this welcome aid allowed them

to settle on land where good pasturage and suit-

able winter quarters were found. This was in the

neighbourhood of Angora and not far from the

boundaries of the Byzantine province of Bithynia.

In 1258, the year in which Baghdad fell, 'Uth-

man, the son of Ertoghul, was born. In due course

he asserted his absolute independence, and founded

the dynasty of the 'Uthmanulis, or as they are

better known, the Ottoman Turks. With them

our history begins. Thirty-five Sultans of the

Ottoman Turks have succeeded Ertoghul in the

male line without a break.

Ertoghul died in 1288 and 'Uthman became head

of the clan;

in the same year Orkhan, son of

'Uthman, was born. The years of the earlier man-

hood of 'Uthman had been peaceable ones, duringwhich he established a reputation for administrative

ability and for justness in his rule. .\t the begin-

ning of the fourteenth century the Seljuk empirewhich was split up into ten states had begunto fall into decay. Many of its feudatory vassals

aspired to independent rule over domains of their

own. 'Uthman remained firm in his allegiance and

as a reward, in 1295, the Seljuk Sultan 'Ala'u'd-din

Kaikobad II made him a ruler over a territory he

4 THE OTTOMAN TURKS

had that year conquered, and presented him with

the horse-tail, drum and banner, which were the

insignia of independent rule. His name was now

inserted in the Friday prayers. The date 1295

may be considered to mark the beginning of the

Ottoman empire. Graduall}-, however, the Otto-

mans began to absorb the domains of the Seljuks,

but the process was not completed till some years

after 'Uthman's death. When the Seljuk dynastyhad become extinct, there was no power left suffici-

ently strong to curb the ambition of the Ottomans,

though the stronger among the ten states which

arose out of the Seljuk empire successfully resisted

them for a time.

The Ottomans now turned their attention to the

easier work of in\ading the neighbouring Christian

lands, and the conflict with the Greek emperor

began in earnest. The inroads were frequent and

each campaign attracted \-ohniteers to 'Uthman's

service and increased the number of his captives.

As the Mongols had so frequently done, he did not

after such forays return to a pastoral life, but

fortified the places he had captured and so showed

his intention of remaining in the newly conquered ter-

ritory. After years of w arfare, the city of Brusa ^

was captured in 1326. 'Uthman was now in his

' Brusa is situated thirteen miles south of the Sea of Marmora.

It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of P>ithynia. The

population now is about 37,000.

OKKHAN 5

last illness, but he lived long enough to know that

his standard had been [planted in the city he had

so long wished to capture, and which now becanne

the capital of his growing kingdom. He wâs

buried within its walls. He was the real founder

of the Ottoman empire and each successive Sultan

is girded with the sword of 'Uthman, preserved

in Constantinople for that purpose.

'Uthman was succeeded by his son Orkhan

(1326-59) . The Christian inhabitants of Brusa

were spared their lives on payment of a ransom

of thirt\- thousand crowns of gold. A mosqueand a college were built, and .\rabic and Persian

scholars of repute were invited to the city which

now became the capital of the Ottomans.

'Uthman had two sons 'Ala'u'd-din and Orkhan.

The latter, though the younger son, became the ruler

on account of his martial vigour. Having established

himself at Brusa, he paid little attention to the

smaller states which had arisen in Asia out of the

late Seljuk kingdom, preferring to attract the mem-bers of them by the superior organization of his

own territories and by victorious campaigns against

the Greeks, which in due time he undertook. At

first, he directed his time and energies to the captur-

ing of the Greek strongholds in Asia. In a few

years Nicomedia, Meacea and Pergamos were added

to his dominions, and after the defeat of the emper-

or Andronicus the Ottoman kingdom extended to

6 THE OTTOMAN TURKS

the shores of the Hellespont, and the Byzantinesretained in 1338 only two towns—Ala Shair and

Rega. Orkhan behaved well to the people of the

conquered cities. When Meacea was taken, the

people were allowed to retire with all their goods ;

an act of clemency which won the admiration of the

Greeks for their conqueror.

Having thus gained control of the whole of the

north-west corner of Asia Minor and the commandof one shore of the Bosphorus, Orkhan was content

to rest for a while. He now saw clearly that the

conquest of the Byzantine empire would be arduous

and prolonged, and that the best way to ensure

final success was to consolidate his dominions, im-

prove his administration, and organize an efficient

army. In these endeavours twenty 3'ears of peace

passed by. 'Ala'u'd-din was appointed Vizier, and

it is to his efforts that the success of the administra-

tion and the formation of an army were largely due.

The old plan had been for the chiefs of the clans

to summon their men to w ar, and when the campaignwas over the soldiers returned home and pursuedtheir avocations. This plan was now changed

entirely. Instead of this somewhat uncertain and

untrained force a standing army was formed in which

besides the Ottomans, man}- Seljuks and membersof other nomad tribes w ere enrolled. A paid corps

of infantry, called the Piyade was formed. Their

wages were small, but they were given lands on the

THE MILITARY SYSTEM 7

condition that they were always read}' for active

service. They were rude soldiers and not alwaysamenable to discipline ;

so a regiment one thousand

strong was formed from the boys of the Christian

families conquered in the wars and made captives.

Every }ear for centuries after a thousand Christian

youths were thus taken and trained as soldiers. A

special officer, the Tournaji Basha, made periodical

visits to all the provinces for this purpose ; later on

youths from Albania, Bosaia and Bulgaria were pre-

ferred. When the captives were not sufficient the

Christian subjects had to give up their sons until the

required number was made up. After 1648 this levy

ceased as the children of the men enrolled were suffi-

cient for the purpose. The lads were brought up as

Muslims, ^êre carefully trained under the strictest

discipline and well rewarded when their courageand conduct deserved it.

' Cut off from all ties of

countr}-, kith and kin, but with high pay and pri-

vileges, with opportunities for military advancement

and for the gratification of the violent and the sen-

sual passions of their animal natures, this military

brotherhood grew up to be the strongest and fiercest

instrument of imperial ambition, which remorseless

fanaticism, prompted by the most subtle statecraft,

ever devised upon earth.'^

^Creasy, History of tlic Ottotuan Turks (ed. London, 1854).

vol. i, p. 23.

8 THE OTTOMAN TURKS

Thus the famous corps of the Janissaries was form-

ed in the year 1328. The Sultan sought religious

sanction for his action. The services of a vener-

able Shaikh of the Baktashiyya Order of Der-

wishes were called in, and Hajji Baktash blessed

the boys by putting the sleeve of his robe on the

head of one of them in such a way that it hungdown his back, and then addressing the Sultan

said :

' The militia which you have just created shall

be called Yeni Cheri (new troops) ; its figures shall

be fair and shining, its arm redoubtable, its sword

sharp. It shall be victorious in all battles and ever

return triumphant." To commemorate the blessing

bestowed by the sleeve of Hajji Baktash, the Janis-

saries wore a white felt cap, with a piece of the same

material pendant on their backs.

In addition to the Piyade and the Janissaries an

irregular force of infantry was formed, whose sad

and peculiar duty it was to bear the first brunt of an

attack;and when they were cut down or severely

treated, the Janissaries rushed on over their dead

bodies to attack the now possibly disorganized

enemy. A select body of horse soldiers called

Sipahis (Sepoys), who held lands on a feudal

tenure, completed the army.

Having now formed this useful arm}', Orkhan was

able to think of further conquests. On the opposite

'

Sell, The Religions Orders of I^hifii, p. 5.

THE DYZANTINE EMPIRE '9

shore of the Hosphorus nas the beautiful city of

Constantinople. Naturally his thoughts turned that

way. The Byzantine empire had now lost much of

its grandeur and much of its power. As a result of

civil wars many provinces had been lost, and in

Constantinople sedition was rife and rival factions

deprived the emperors of an)- real power.' The

property of the Greeks was plundered, their landed

estates were contiscated, and even their families

were often sold into slavery. The landed propertyand the military power, with the social influence they

conferred, passed into the hands of the Serbs, the

Albanians, the Genoese, and the Ottoman Turks."'

The emperor Cantacuzemus gave his daughterTheodora in marriage to the Sultan. In order to

secure the aid of the Turks they were permitted to

ravage a province,'^

capture as many Christians as

thev could and sell them as slaves. This thev were

permitted to do in Constantinople itself, and the

'

Finlay, History of Greece, vo). iii, p. 441, ciuoted by S.

Lane-Iôole, Turkey, p. 32.

^ Turks in small bodies had many years previously entered into

Europe. In the ninth century some, driven from their homes,obtained from the emperor Theophilus an asylum in Macedonia.

They retained their military habits and some formed part of the

imperial guard. In the eleventh century another party settled

between the Dneeper and the Danube, followed in the twelfth

century by another band. They were gradually absorbed into

the general population, or kept in check and so gave no serious

trouble. See Victor Berard, La Titrquic (Paris, 1911), pp. 148-9.

10 THE OTTOMAN TURKS

distressed Greeks saw their fellow-Christians of both

sexes and of all classes exposed in a public market,

and sold to the highest bidder to be henceforth

subject to temporal and spiritual bondage. This

infamous treaty was the first act in the drama of

the downfall of the Byzantine empire. Gibbon thus

graphically describes the marriage :—

A stately pa\ilion was erected, in which the empressIrene passed the night with her daughters. In the

morning Theodora ascended a throne which was sur-

rounded with curtains of silk and gold ; the troops wereunder arms

;but the emperor alone was on horseback.

At a signal the curtains were suddenly withdrawn, to

disclose the bride, or the victim, encircled by kneelingeunuchs and hymeneal torches ; the sound of flutes and

trumpets proclaimed the joyful event ; and her pretended

happiness was the theme of the nuptial song, which waschanted by such poets as the age could produce. With-out the rites of the Church, Theodora was delivered to

her barbarous lord ; but it had been stipulated that she

should preserve her religion in the harem of Brusa ; andher father celebrates her charity and devotion in this

ambiguous situation.'

Orkhan defeated the enemies of Cantacuzemus,

and penetrated the country as far as the Balkans,

thus learning how defenceless it was and what an

easy prey it would prove to his young and vigorous

army. In 1355 Orkhan sent his son SuleymanPasha with a small force to cross the Hellespont.

Other troops followed and the European shore was

secured by the Ottomans. The fortress of Gallipole

1 Gibbon, Roman l^n)f>irc (ed. London. 1855), vol. vii, p. 145.

MURAD I 11

was taken and other towns were captured. The

Ottomans had now come to stay. In 1358 Suleymanwas killed by a fall from his horse, the news of

which so affected his father Orkhan that he died

two months after. He lived long enough to prove

the value of his military organization and to test the

valour of his new troops. The great merit of all

Orkhan's administrative arrangements was that they

admitted of development and extension as the empire

grew. Long after, when Muhammad II improvedthe civil administration he based his reforms on

Orkhan's institutions and made them the model of

his legislation.

Murad I (1359-89), called Amurath by European

writers, succeeded his father. He was a bold and

active warrior and soon seized an opportunity of

invading Europe. By that time the dominions of

the Greek empire had become very much restricted,

and manv provinces, afterwards included in the

Ottoman empire, were under independent princes.

This probably postponed the fall of Constantinople

for a time, as they had to be first subdued.

Cantacuzemus was now dead and John Palaeologus

was emperor. He was utterly incapable of opposing

Murad. In 1361 Adrianople was taken and in 1467

it was made the Turkish capital instead of Brusa.

Three years later Philippolis fell to the Ottomans.

The leaders of the various independent states were

now alarmed. These people were far more N'igorous

12' THE OTTOMAN TURKS

than the Greeks; and Murad found in the Serbs,

Bosnians, Bulgarians, Albanians and Hungariansvaliant and determined foes. In 1364 a contest

began, which in modern days has been renewed with

entirely different results, for it is the Ottomans who

have now lost their pristine vigour. Then an allied

army 60,000 strong was beaten by a much smaller

Ottoman force under Lala Shahin, Murad's com-

mander-in-chief.

In 1373 the Turks conquered Macedonia cross-

ed the Balkans and captured Nissa. The king of

Serbia had to supply a contingent of troops and to

pay a tribute in order to save his kingdom. The

ruler of Bulgaria obtained peace by giving his

daughter, which apparently he was more ready to

do than to part with money. Lala Shahin was made

a feudal lord over these provinces.

About this time Murad returned to his Asiatic

dominions to celebrate the marriage of his son

Bayazid, surnamed Yildirim, or Thunderbolt, from

the energy he displayed in battle and the quickness

of his movements in action. This wedding broughta large accession of territory in the form of a

dowry. The absence of Murad in Asia was an

opportunity not to be lost, and the Christian princes,

vexed at the yearly drain of their boys for the regi-

ment of the Janissaries, and feeling the irksomeness

of the tribute required, formed an alliance against

the Ottomans, and in Bosnia nearly annihilated one

BATTLE OF KOSOVO 13

of their armies. Murad and Bayazid quickly return-

ed and won the great battle of Kosovo in 1382. The

Serbs, the Hungarians and others numbered 100,000men and the conflict was long and fierce. At a

council of war it was proposed that the camels of

the baggage train should be placed in front to form

a living rampart and to confuse the horses of the

knights by the smell which proceeded from them.

Bayazid opposed this plan, saying :

' The honour

of our flag requires that we should meet the enemyface to face.' His advice was accepted and the

camels were sent to the rear. Bayazid displayed

great valour and by his brilliant fighting and rapidmovements maintained the reputation of his nameYildirim, or Thunderbolt. The slaughter was great.

It was, however, a sad da}' for the Ottomans, for

Milosh Kobilovich, a Serb soldier, gained admittance

into the tent of Murad and stabbed him to death

with a dagger. Murad lived long enough to give

orders for the final charge of his troops and for tlie

execution of Lazarus, the king of Serbia, now a

prisoner. The assassin was slain at once, but his

work was done and ever since he has been regarded

by the Serbs as a hero. His treachery has been

overlooked because of the value of its result. It is

said that in order to prevent the repetition of such

an unfortunate occurrence'

a rule has ever since been

prescribed in Ottoman etiquette that no strangershall be presented to the Sultan unless led by two


courtiers who hold him by the arms, and thus pre-

vent any treacherous act. This precaution is no

longer insisted on; but even in the present (i.e. nine-

teenth) century ambassadors were not permitted to

approach the Sultan too closely.'^

The result of the defeat at Kosovo was that Serbia

became a province tributary to the Sultan, although

it was allowed to have its own rulers- who assumed

the title of Despot. This state of things continued

for about seventy years, when in 1459 Sultan Mu-hammad II occupied Serbia and made it a Turkish

pashalik. This ignominious position it held for

three hundred and forty-five years. In 1804 the

struggle for independence began and after long years

of conflict it was at length successful.

Constantinople was still spared, but the emperor,

John Palaeologus, and his sons had to follow the

camp and court of Murad. This humiliation of his

rivals satisfied Murad for the present. A show of

friendship was maintained and the emperor gave one

daughter to Murad and two others to his sons Baya-zid and Ya'qub Chelebi. Thus these and other

princesses played their sorro\\ful part in the diplo-

matic game.Murad's son, Sanji Bey, now governor of Brusa,

concerted a plot with Andronicus, son of Palaeolo-

gus, to dethrone their respective fathers. It was a

^ S. Lane-Poole, Turkey, p. 45.

ACCESSION OF BAYAZID I 15

foolish thing to do and was soon discovered. Sanji

was executed ;and the emperor gave orders that

his son should be made blind.

Murad was renowned for his courage, for the

extension of his empire, and for the love and the

fear which his subjects bore towards him.

In the presence of the victorious troops at Kosovo

Bayazid I (1389-1402) was proclaimed Sultan. His

tirst act was to give the order for the execution

of his brother Ya'qub Chelebi, who had fought

bravely in the recent battle. He remembered howhis brother, Sanji Be\', had plotted against Murad

and he was determined that there should be no family

plot against himself. It set a mournful precedent,

for henceforward it became the rule for Sultans on

their accession to murder their brothers. There

is a text in the Qur'an which says,'

Civil strife is

worse than bloodshed'

[Suratu'l-Baqara (ii) 214].'

The action of Bayazid w as probably a straining of

this text, but assuming that'

civil strife' was likely

to follow, it gave some show of authority for his

cruel deed. For many generations this sanction

was thus taken and the result of putting out of the

way any possible male claimant to the throne has

been that revolutions arising from family disputes

*-^ (fitna) may also be translated as sedition : Zamakhsharf

explains it as'

idolatry '.


have not been common. In later times these un-

fortunate brothers were confined to the harems and

grew up ignorant, if not imbecile. The best mo-

dern historian of Turkish affairs has said :—

The progress of civilization has rendered impossiblethe systematic murder, but not the incarceration of

brothers ; and the consequence is that the crown maydevolve upon an elderly man, who has been kept aclose prisoner all his life and who has no more experi-ence of the world than a monk. If, when the throne

is \acant, any prince can, with the aid of the army, seize

upon the supreme power, and put his competitors out

of the way, his title has generally been accepted ; but

there is no trace in Ottoman history of any attempt to

dispute the claims of the House of Osman or to estab-

lish a rival dynasty. This is clearly a great elementof strength compared with the Christian kingdoms with

which the Ottoman empire contended during manycenturies, and it doubtless did much to counterbalancethe many weaknesses which ha^•e always been inherent

in the Turkish rule.'

Bayazid continued his wars and King Stephenof Serbia was compelled to sue for peace. In the

treaty which followed he accepted the position of

a vâssal, undertook to furnish a contingent of sol-

diers to render in person military service to the Sul-

tan, a task he honourably fulfilled, and to give his

sister to the Sultan for a wife. This lad}' was a

woman of strong character and influence. It is said

of her that'

of all his wives he (Bayazid) held her

dearest, and for her sake restored to her brother the

Ôdysseus, Turkey in liurope, p. 119.

FEUDAL SYSTEM ORGANIZED 17

city and castle of Semendria, and Columbarum in

Serbia ;she allured him to drink wine forbidden

by their law and caused him to delight in sump-tuous banquets, which his predecessors never

did/ '

Uskub was taken and Turks settled there as colon-

ists and a feudal system was organized, out of

w^hich grew the landed proprietors, afterwards known

by the names of Derebeys and Pashas. '^ Wallachia

was conquered in the year 1392 and its ruler became

a tributary. When all this had been accomplished,

the Sultan was called to his Asiatic dominions

where trouble had arisen. With his usual rapidity

he passed from place to place and soon secured

possession of all that had belonged to the Seljiik

kingdom. To these conquests must be added the

possession absolutely, or as tributary states, of manycountries in Europe.He now determined to show to the orthodox

Sunni Muslims his respect for the House of 'Abbas

and to have a formal religious sanction for the high

position to which he had attained. There were now'Abbasid Khalifas at Cairo,^ men devoid of real power,

kept to give a sort of prestige to the rulers there.

From one of these, at the Court of the MamlukSultan Burquq, he was invested with the title

' Knolles, quoted by S. Lane-Poole, Turkey, p. 49.

2 See Victor Berard, La Turqute, p. 152.

8 See Sell, The Mamhiks in Egypt (C.L.S.), p. 7.

2


of Sultan.^ He further showed his religious zeal,

by creating a number of religious foundations in

the conquered provinces. The Derwish Orders also

received much landed property for the support of

their zawiyahs (monasteries)."'

Manuel, the son of the emperor Palaeologus, was

serving in the Ottoman army, and on hearing of his

father's death, he went away secretly to Constanti-

nople and was proclaimed emperor. This sudden

departure was an act of military insubordination

which Bayazid could not overlook, so he returned

to Europe, captured Salonica and Larrisa and laid

siege to Constantinople ;but the formation of a

powerful alliance amongst his enemies led to the

raising of the siege, and Constantinople was safe for

the time.

Sigismund, the king of Hungary, appealed for aid

to the Pope, who in 1394 proclaimed a crusade

against the Turks. The bravest knights of France

and Germany under renowned and princely leaders

responded to the call. The Grand Master of the

Knights of St. John of Jerusalem came with manyfollowers. An army sixty thousand strong marched

through Serbia. King Stephen, faithful to his treaty

with the Ottomans (ante p. 12), did not join the

1 As a matter of fact many years before Orkhan had assumed

his title ;but Bayazid from political motives sought for and

btained this formal religious recognition.2 See Victor B^rard, La Turguie, p. 158.

BATTLE OF NICOPOLIS 19

Christian army, which in consequence plundered

his lands. The Christians then laid siege to Nico-

polis, a strong frontier fortress. With an overween-

ing sense of pride, they underestimated the energyof their enemy, and even laughed when news was

brought that Bayazid would soon be upon them. It

was so. Then the French knights, against the advice

of Sigismund who knew the Ottoman tactics, rushed

upon the foe. They easily dispersed the irregular

troops whom it was the custom to place in the van.

The fury of their onslaught was so great that they

succeeded in piercing a second line and thought all

was won ; but now they found arranged in goodorder and waiting for them the main body of the

Turkish army forty thousand strong. They turned to

flee, but it was too late and many lost their lives.

The charge was a tactical blunder and its defeat

spread dismay amongst the infantry, man}- of whomfled from the field of battle. The Hungarians and

Bavarians made a stand for a time, but Stephenof Serbia brought up his forces and attacked the

Christians. Victory fell to the Ottomans.

The battle of Nicopolis (1396) strengthened the

power of Bayazid, but the victory was sullied by the

cruelty of the conqueror, who on going over the field

of battle said :

' This has been a cruel battle for our

people ; the Christian have defended themselves

desperately ;but I will have this slaughter avenged


on those who are prisoners.'^ The next day the

whole Turkish army was drawn up in the form of a

crescent, and the captives were brought into his

presence. He allowed the Count de Nevers to select

twenty-four knights to be kept as prisoners until

their ransom arrived. Then in their presence and

in that of the Sultan ten thousand prisoners, knights,

squires and soldiers, were brought in and the order

for their immediate execution was given. The cruel

butcher}- proceeded until his own officers begged the

Sultan to let it cease and so a small remnant was

left to pass into captivity. The Count de Nevers

and his companions were taken about with the armyand exposed as trophies, and then confined at Brusa

until their ransom arrived.

The pride of Bayazid now increased and he

resumed the siege of Constantinople. It lasted for

six years. He had already secured the right to erect

a mosque and a college, and to appoint a Qadi in

the city ;now he demanded the entire possession of

it. The situation was one of great peril. It was

averted not by any courage in its besieged, or loss of

vigour in the besiegers, but to a totally unexpected

cause—the appearance of Timur (Tamerlane) the

Tartar in the Asiatic dominions of Bayazid. He had

built up a great empire, was the most renowned mon-

arch of his day, and now it was to come to an end.

' Creasy. History of the Ottoman Turks, vol. i, p. 62.

TIMUR 21

Timur was born in Samarcund in 1333. Fromthe position of a pett\- chief he became ruler of the

province of Transoxiana. Having under his control

vast hordes of men drawn from Central Asia, for

thirt\- years or more he ravaged vast areas of countryfrom Delhi' to Damascus. The small kingdoms into

which the Muhammadans were now divided, could

not resist, either singly or jointly, the fierce rush

of his huge armies. Persia and Syria fell before

him;but no less than four attempts against Egypt

were successfully met by the bravery of the Mamluks.

1 It does not fall within the purpose of this work to describe

Tfmur's invasion of India, but a brief note on it will not be out of

place. Civil wars and dissensions had weakened the kingdom of

Delhi when Ti'mur with a large army invaded it. On December

17, 1358, the decisi\e battle was fought and soon after Delhi was

sacked. During the invasion many prisoners were slain, the

country was ravaged, the people were massacred, and the victorious

troops were laden with spoils. Then Ti'mur and his men returned

through the hills of Afghanistan and the scourge was over. Years

after there was confusion and disorder in the country and the king

of Kabul, a descendant of Timiir, was invited to come and settle

the disputes by force of arms. Babar came and conquered (1526) ;

and laid the foundation of the empire which his grandson Akbar

made so famous.

More than two centuries passed by and then after the battle of

Buxar (Baksar) in 1764 the emperor Shah Alam signed a treaty bywhich he and his successors became pensioners of the East India

Company. Thus ended the independent political existence of the

House of Timiir.

.\gain years passed by and after the great mutiny the last Indian

sovereign of Ti'miir's race, as a deposed monarch, ended his daysin exile in Rangoon.


For a time he left Bayazid alone, but trouble came

about in this way. Princes deposed by Timur

sought refuge with Bayazid, and some whom Bayazidhad subdued went to Timur. Negociations were

entered into but Bayazid's haughty tone gave such

offence that Timiir made war on him. The final

issue was decided in the battle of Angora (1402).*

Bayazid appears to have underrated the power of

his enemy and learnt his mistake when it was

too late. Timiir was a skilful general \\ho under-

stood the tactical movements of large masses of

troops. On this occasion his arrangements were

sound, his combinations worked smoothly, his

quick eye saw the varrying episodes of a great

fight, and his presence was always where it wasmost needed. Bayazid was also a capable general,

but at a critical moment many of his troops failed

him. Amongst them were many inhabitants of

the small states which, after the fall of the

Seljuks, the Turks had absorbed. These men allur-

ed by the promises of the agents of Timur broke

their allegiance, and saw in the fall of Bayazid

the hope of recovered liberty and the reconstruc-

tion of their ancestral countries. Bayazid with his

forty thousand Janissaries, supported by the Ser-

bian troops under king Stephen, made a bold

'

Angora was situated about one Inuidred and fifty miles east of

Brusa.

DEATH OF BAYAZID 25

stand ; but, when even his son Suleyman fled and

many others had followed, further resistance was

hopeless.' On the field of Angora the Turks,

who then aided the Seljuk chief, first won their

renown as warriors {ante p. 2 ) and now, after

about a hundred and fifty years had passed, their

empire, built up with bravery and ability, was

completely ruined, apparently beyond recovery.

Bayazid was taken prisoner and in a barred

litter' was carried in the conqueror's train. But,

according to Gibbon, Timiir seems to have dealt

kindly with Bayazid and his son Musa who was

also a captive. Bayazid died in March, 1403,

eight months after the battle of Angora, and

Timur two years after it. During this time, how-

ever, Timur occupied Brusa and other cities and

captured Smyrna from the Knights of St. John, whowere then in possession of that city.

^ For a quaint description of the battle, see Knolles, i. 152,

quoted by S. Lane-Poole, Turkey, pp. 69-72.^ This apparently gave rise to the story related by some

Muslim historians to the effect that Bayazid was carried about

in an iron cage. Evliya Efendi says; '"I thank God," said

Timur, "for having delivered thee into my hand, but if I had

fallen into thine what wouldest thou have done." Before

his father could reply, Yildirim said: "By heaven! I would

have shut thee up in an iron cage, until the day of thy death."

Timur replied: "What thou lovest in thy heart, I love in

mine."'

Then, according to Evliya, Bayazid was placed in a

cage [Travels of Evliya (London, 1846), p. 29] . The story is not

accepted by later historians as correct.


The Turkish rule in Asia Minor was at an end

and the petty princes, dispossessed by them, came

into their own again. Seldom has the result of

a single battle led to so great a downfall. It

would seem as if the history of the Ottoman

Turks might have ended here;but it has been

well said :—The most astonishing characteristic of the rule of the

Turks is its vitality. Again and again its doom has

been pronounced by wise prophets, and still it survives.

Province after province has been cut off the empire,

yet still the Sultan sits supreme over wide dominions,and is reverenced or feared by subjects of many races.

Considering how little of the great qualities of the ruler

the Turk has often possessed, how little trouble he has

taken to conciliate the subjects whom his sword has

subdued, it is amazing how firm has been his authority,

how unshaken his power.^

It was so now, for within a very few years

Muhammad I, a strong and daring ruler, recover-

ed the lost ground and made the empire stronger

than ever. Timur checked the Ottomans for a

time, but he could not destroy those elements in

their character which made for success. Orkhan and

his brother {ante p. 7) had framed an adminis-

trative and military system with much wisdom;

the princes of the royal house were well educated,

with the result that the men placed in positions

of authority were capable and much superior to

' S. Lane-Poole, Turkey, p. 74.

THE SONS OF BAYAZID 25

the officials of the decrepit Greek empire. StanleyLane-Poole thus describes the situation :

—It was by their mental as well as physical power that

a vast variety of races, both Muhammadan and Chris-

tian, were held together by as firm a grasp as that bywhich imperial Rome held her provinces ; and thestandard of the Sultan was carried victoriously into theheart of Europe and Asia and far along the shores ofAfrica. Never was so durable a power reared up so

rapidly from such scanty means as were possessed byOrkhan and his Vezir, when they conceived the boldidea of exterminating Christianity by educating Christianchildren. '

Under these circumstances the empire speedilyrecovered from its fall. After Bayazid's death, his

sons disputed among themselves about the succes-

sion. Suleyman, who had fled from the field of

Angora, claimed authority in Europe. He was a

cruel, dissolute man and was detested by the army ;

consequently he wâs soon killed (1410). Musa,another brother, fought the Serbs and then laid siege

to Constantinople. The emperor appealed for aid

to Muhammad, another son of Bayazid. He,assisted by the Serbs, attacked and routed the besieg-

ing army and Musa was slain. 'Isa, a third brother,

established himself at Brusa, but soon came to an

untimely end. When these princes had passed awayMuhammad became sole ruler (1413), and thoughhe only reigned for eight years, in that short time he

^Turkey, p. 767.


did much to restore the ruined empire to its former

greatness.

He was one of the wisest of all the Ottoman

Sultans. He found an empire almost ruined by the

defeat sustained bv Bavazid, and still further

imperilled by the civil discord which arose amongsthis sons. Muhammad, a true statesman, saw that

consolidation and not extension was the first result

to be secured. In Europe he made friends with the

Greek emperor and entered into treaties with other

Christian princes. In Asia his difBculties were

greater, but he partialh* overcame them and brought

the petty states, which had arisen after the inroad

of Timur, into subjection. Two acts of cruelty

are attributed to him—the blinding of his brother

Kasim and the murder of the son of Suleyman,both possible pretenders to the throne. He had

experienced the evil of family quarrels and this

explains his action, though it does not justify it.

Apart from this, he was a mild ruler and sought

to bind the various classes of his subjects together

in amity and peace. He was a man of cultivated

tastes and courteous manners. He earned the name

of Muhammad the gentleman (Chelebi). It was

well for the Ottoman empire that such a man had

supreme rule in it at such a critical time. Hedied in 1421 and was buried at Brusa, which, how-

ever, was no longer the capital, for Adrianople had

taken its place.

MURAD II 27

Murad II (1421-51) succeeded his father. Hefound the empire so far recovered from its fall that

he was soon able to recommence a career of conquest.

It was necessary to assert more strongly than

Muhammad had done the authority of the govern-

ment in Asia, and^ so orders were passed for the

despatch of an expedition to accomplish this. The

death of Muhammadlhad been kept secret from the

troops, and they refused to go without first seeing

him. So the dead monarch's bod}- was propped upin a darkened room, and a servant from behind raised

its hands and moved jitshead as the troops passed

by, satisfied with having paid their homage to their

master.

Murad declined to pa\' the subsidy given by

Muhammad to the emperor Manuel, who had released

from custody Mustafa a pretender to the Ottoman

throne. Mustafa was said to be a son of Bayazid.

This led to a war of rebellion which lasted for a year.

Mustafa was taken prisoner and hanged at Adrianople

in 1422. Murad was no\\- angry with Manuel for

having released Mustafa and laid siege to Constanti-

nople. Bayazid had done the same, but was obliged

to raise the siege and hurry to the defence of his

Asiatic dominions. The same thing happened again.

Murad had to go rapidly to Asia to quell an insurrec-

tion. On his return he left the city alone on the

payment of a heavy tribute and the surrender of

manv towns on the Black Sea coast. In H28,.

2S THE OTTOMAN TURKS

Salonica, garrisoned by fifteen hundred Venetians,

was captured ; its churches were turned into mosques

and most of its people were slain or sold as slaves.

But a formidable combination of Christian states

was now made, and Murad was soon called upon to

show his martial vigour. In 1427 Stephen Lazare-

vich, the king of Serbia died. He had faithfully

kept his compact with the Ottomans and, as we have

seen, rendered valuable aid on important occasions.

His successor, George Brankovich, was a much better

patriot and determined to break away from the

Ottoman alliance.* He was joined by the rulers of

Bosnia, Hungary, Poland, Wallachia and Albania, a

formidable confederacy.

The chief hero of the war that ensued was John

Hunyady, known as the White Knight of Wallachia.

According to Gibbon '^ he was a man of humble

origin, his father being a Wallachian, his mother a

Greek ;but a more romantic story is told by a

modern historian.' When king Sigismund of

Hungary was fleeing from one of his unsuccessful

engagements with the Ottoman armies, he met and

^ King Stephen left no heirs and appointed George Brankovich

as his successor ;but Sultan Murad claimed the throne, on- the

ground that his grandmother, Mileva, a daughter of king Stephen

and the wife of Bayazi'd I was a Serbian princess. The Serbs,

declining to acknowledge the legitimacy of a claim based on such

a relationship, rejected the demand of Murad, whereupon he

invaded their country, and the result was war.

^ Gibbon, Roman Empire, vol. vii, p. 277.

ABDICATION OF MURAD II 29

woed the beautiful Elizabeth iMorsinej'at the village

of Hunyade, and John Hun}ady was believed to be

the fruit of this consolatory affection.'' Whatever

his origin was, Hunyady became the most valiant

warrior of his time, so dreaded by the Turks that

they used his name to frighten their children. Hemade successful attacks on the Ottomans and crossed

the Balkans, in the depth of winter, a type of

military march but rarely attempted.^ The advance

was opposed and a severe struggle thus described

took place :—

The Turks had skilfully barricaded the passes, and

poured water down the approaches, which froze into an

icy wall during the night. The passage seemed impracti-cable. Yet nothing daunted, and braving the weapons of

the Turks with the same inflexibility as the rigours of the

cold, the Hvmgarians forced the pass of Isladi, and keptChristmas on the southern slope of the famous range.'

The Ottomans were defeated a second time and

Murad sued for peace. A ten years' truce was agreed

upon and the Sultan wearied with the cares of office,

abdicated in favour of his son Muhammad II.

The appeals of the Greek emperor for aid found

little response, but Burgundy sent a small force

which, uniting with the fleets of Venice and Bur-

gundy, became masters of the Hellespont. They1 S. Lane-Poole, Turkey, p. 87.

2 It was done by the Russian General, Gurko, in January, 1878,

whose army ascended the slopes by cutting steps in the ice, and

descended by sliding down.3 S. Lane-Poole, Turkey, p. 89.


were not aware of the conclusion of the recent

treaty of peace, called the treaty of Szegedin

(July 12, 1444), by which Serbia regained indepen-

dence, and Wallachia was annexed to Hungary.The Pope's legate, Cardinal Julian, used this fact

to induce Ladislaus, king of Hungary, to break his

oath. He said :—

Is it thus, that you will desert their expectations and

your own fortune ? It is to them, to your God, and

your fellow- Christians, that you have pledged yourfaith ; and that prior obligation annihilates a rash and

sacrilegious oath to the enemies of Christ. His vicar

on earth is the Roman pontiff, without whose sanction

you can neither promise nor perform. In his name I

absolve your perjury and sanctify your arms ; follow

my footsteps in the paths of glory and salvation ;and if

still ye have scruples, devolve on my head the punish-ment and the sin.

'

The scruples of Hunyady were overcome by the

•oifer to make him king of Bulgaria. Though sup-

ported by high ecclesiastical authority and ap-

proved by popular consent, it was a most dis-

graceful proceeding and justified reprisals of the

severest kind. An army 20,000 strong soon invaded

the Ottoman dominions and many places were taken

including Varna. Murad in response to earnest

appeals from his people returned to public life and

with an armv of 40,000 veterans took the field.

The legate and Hunyady suggested a retreat, but

^ Gibbon, Roman Empire, pp. 272~3.

BATTLE OF VARNA 31

Ladislaus I, the Hungarian king, determined to try

the fortune of war. A desperate conflict ensued,

resulting in the defeat of the Christians at Varna

on November 10, 1444, and the death of Ladislaus

and of the Legate, Cardinal Julian, who had

brought about the disgraceful breach of the treaty

of Szegedin made only a few months before.

Hunyady escaped. Owing to this great victory,

the Ottomans had for some centuries little to fear

from the attacks of the European nations.

In order to understand the action of manv of

the Christian princes we must bear in mind the

domineering spirit of the Latin Church which aimed

at the subjugation of the Eastern one. The Chris-

tians of Bosnia and Serbia would have been broughtunder the rule of the Latins, had Hunyady won a

victory at Varna;but to prevent any such possi-

bility, the rulers of these two states agreed to

terms of friendship with the Turks. ,Murad retired

into private life after this;but the Janissaries revolt-

ed and his presence was again sought for. Oncemore he assumed the imperial authority and the

Janissaries obeyed the well-known voice of their

lord. This time he remained in office until his

death in 1451, and so passed away one of the

noblest of the Turkish Sultans.

He was succeeded by his son Muhammad II

(1451-81) who, on account of his successful siege of

Constantinople, has been named the Conqueror.


Unlike Murad, who was of a noble disposition,

whose word could be trusted, whose honour was

unsullied, Muhammad was faithless and cruel.

Like many of the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt he

combined great ferocity with a love of learning ; he

founded colleges and was liberal towards what a

Muslim would call good works. Poets who sang

his praises were given pensions and annual presents

were sent to the famous Persian poet J ami. He

was a great warrior though he did little to extend

his dominions, beyond the capture of Constanti-

nople, with the exception of Greece which he

annexed in 1460,^ nor did he conquer the great

captains, Hunyady and Skanderbeg, of whom more

will be said hereafter. He failed to capture Rhodes,

which was gallantly defended by the Knights of

St. John. His great feat, however, was the capture

of Constantinople in 1453. Bayazid had built one

fort on the Asiatic -side of the Bosphorus ;Muham-

mad erected one on the other side, called Rumelia

Hisar, about five miles above Constantinople, and

thus prepared for the important siege. Six thousand

men were employed in the work and in forty days

^ Greece was divided into six military divisions, in each of which

Turkish settlers were located who held their lands on a military

tenure. The number of mounted men they supplied to the armywas seven thousand. Heavy imposts were laid upon the inhabi-

tants, including the jizya, or poll-tax. The tribute of Christian

children to recruit the ranks of the Janissaries was peculiarly

irksome. This continued until 1676 when the tribute ceased.

SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE 33

the fort was rendered impregnable. The situa-

tion was now extremely grave. The rulers of the

various Christian Powers held aloof, and the rich

inhabitants of Constantinople hid their treasures

instead of placing them at the emperor's disposal,

a foolish deed thus happily described by Dr. John-son in his traged}- of Irene :

—The groaning Greeks dig up the golden crowns,The accumulated wealth of hoarding ages ;

That wealth which, granted to their weeping prince.Had ranged enbattled nations at their gates.

No modern historian has surpassed the brilliant

description given by Gibbon of the famous siege.

The following is his account^ of the struggle :—

Of the triangle which composes the figure of Con-

stantinople, the two sides along the sea were madeinaccessible to an enemy ; the Propontis by nature, andthe harbour by art. Between the two waters the basis

of the triangle, the land side, was protected by a double

wall and a deep ditch of the depth of one hundred feet.

Along this line of fortifications, for a distance of six

miles, the Ottomans directed their principal attack. In

the iirst days of the siege, the Greek soldiers descendedinto the ditch or sallied into the field

;but they soon

discovered that, in the proportion of their numbers, oneChristian was of more value than twenty Turks ; andafter these bold preludes, they were prudently content to

maintain their rampart with their missile weapons. Nor

^ Roman Empire, vol. vii, ch. Ixviii. In making this long

quotation I follow a precedent set by S. Lane-Poole the author

of Turkey, in which Gibbon's description is given at length

(ch. vii, pp. 111-135).

3


should this prudence be accused of pusillanimity. Thenation was indeed pusillanimous and base

; but the last

Constantine deserves the name of a hero ; his noble bandof volunteers was inspired with Roman virtue

; and the

foreign auxiliaries supported the honour of the western

chivalry.

Then the Turks, pushing their approaches to the edgeof the ditch, attempted to fill the enormous chasm, andto build a road to the assault. Innumerable fascines,and hogsheads, and trunks of trees, were heaped on each

other; and such was the impetuosity of the throng, that

the foremost and the weakest were pushed headlongdown the precipice and instantly buried under the

accumulated mass. To fill the ditch was the toil of the

besiegers ;to clear away the rubbish was the safety of

the besieged ; and, after a long and bloody conflict the

web that had been woven in the day was still unravelledin the night.

A wooden turret of the largest size was advanced onrollers ; this portable magazine of ammunition andfascines was protected by a threefold covering of bulls'

hides; incessant volleys were securely discharged from

the loop-holes ;in the front, three doors were contrived

for the alternate sally and retreat of the soldiers and work-men. They ascended by a staircase to the upperplatform, and as high as the level of that platform a

scaling-ladder could be raised by pulleys to form a bridge,and grapple with the adverse rampart.

At the dawn of day, the impatient Sultan perceivedwith astonishment and grief that his wooden turret hadbeen reduced to ashes

;the ditch was cleared and

restored ; and the tower of St. Romanus was againstrong and entire. He deplored the failure of his

design.

At last five vessels, four of which were from

Genoa appeared bearing provisions of grain, wine,


oil and vegetables. The Turkish fleet at the

entrance of the Bosphorus opposed their entrance,

and Muhammad seated on horseback cheered his

mariners by his voice. Gibbon thus records the

naval battle :—

The five Christian ships continued to advance with

joyful shouts, and a full press both of sails and oars,

against a hostile fleet of three hundred vessels;and the

rampart, the camp, the coasts of Europe and Asia, werelined with innumerable spectators, who anxiously awaitedthe event of this momentous succour. In the Christian

squadron, five stout and lofty ships were guided byskilful pilots, and manned with the veterans of Italy and

Greece, long practised in the arts and perils of the sea.

Their weight was directed to sink or scatter the weakobstacles that impeded their passage ; their artillery

swept the waters ; their liquid fire was poured on the

heads of the adversaries, who, with the design of

boarding, presumed to approach them; and the winds

and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator.

They won the naval victory and anchored securely in the

inner harbour of the city. At last on May 29 came the

final attack.

At day break, without the customary signal of the

morning gun, the Turks assaulted the city by sea andland

;and the similitude of a twined or twisted thread

has been applied to the closeness and continuity of

their line of attack. The foremost ranks consisted of

the refuse of the host, a voluntary crowd, Vv-ho foughtwithout order or command ; of the feebleness of ageor childhood, of peasants and vagrants, and of all whohad joined the camp in the blind hope of plunder and

martyrdom. The common impulse drove them onwardsto the wall ; the most audacious to climb were instantly

precipitated ;and not a dart, not a bullet, of the

Christians was idly wasted on the accumulated throng.


But their strength and ammunition were exhausted in

this laborious defence ; the ditch was filled with the

bodies of the slain ; they supported the footsteps of their

companions ; and of this devoted vanguard, the death

was more serviceable than the life.

In that fatal moment, the Janissaries arose, fresh,

vigorous, and invincible. The Sultan himself on horse-

back, with an iron mace in his hand was the spectatorand judge of their valour; he was surrounded by ten

thousand of his domestic troops whom he reser\ed for

the decisive occasion ; and the tide of battle was directed

and impelled by his voice and eye.The first who deserved the Sultan's reward was

Hasan, the Janissary of gigantic stature and strength.With his scimitar in one hand, and his buckler in the

other, he ascended the outward fortification;

of the

thirty Janissaries who were emulous of his valour,

eighteen perished in the bold adventure. Hasan and his

twelve companions had reached the summit;the giant

was precipitated from the rampart ; he rose on one knee,and was again oppressed by a shower of darts and stones.

But his success had proved that the achievement waspossible ; the walls and towers were instantly coveredwith a swarm of Turks ; and the Greeks, now driven

from the \antage ground, were overwhelmed by in-

creasing multitudes. Amidst these multitudes, the

emperor, who accomplished all the duties of a generaland a soldier was long seen, and finally lost.

The prudent despair of Constantine cast away the

purple ; amidst the tumult he fell by an unknown hand,and his body was buried under a mountain of the

slain.^ After his death, resistance and order were no

more;the Greeks fled towards the city ; and many were

^His head was cut off and publicly exhibited. It was subse-

quently embalmed and sent round to the chief cities of Asia, See

Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks, p. 136.


pressed and stifled in the narrow pass of tlie gate of

St. Romanus.It was thus, after a siege of forty -three days, that

Constantinople, which had defied the power of Chosroes,the Chagan, and the CaHphs, was irretrievably subdued

by the arms of Mohamet the Second. Her empire onlyhad been subverted by the Latins ; her religion was

trampled in the dust by the Muslim conquerors.From every part of the capital they flowed into the

church of St. Sophia. In the space of an hour, the

sanctuary, the choir, the nave, the upper and lower

galleries were filled with the multitudes of fathers and

husbands, of women and children, of priests, monks and

religious virgins. The doors were broken with axes ; and

as the Turks encountered no resistance, their bloodless

hands were employed in selecting and securing the

multitude of their prisoners. In the space of an hour,

the male captives were bound with cords, the females

with their veils and girdles. The senators were linked

with their slaves ; the prelates with the porters of the

church ; and young men of a plebeian class with noble

maids, whose faces had been invisible save to the Sun and

their nearest kindred. The loudest in their wailings were

the nuns, who were torn from the altar with naked

bosoms outstretched hands, and dishevelled hair.

Thus after a siege of fifty-three days fell the

glorious capital of the eastern empire. The Khalifas

of Damascus * and of Baghdad, and three previous

Turkish Sultans had failed to capture it. Muham-mad succeeded in doing that which it had long been

the aim of many Muslim rulers to accom})lish. The

emperor, Constantine Palaeologus, the last and

^ See Sell, Tlie Unuiyyad ami the 'Abbdsiil Khalifates

(C.L.S ), p. 33.


noblest of the Caesars, died a brave and honourable

death, in striking contrast to the weak and cowardly

Musta'sim bi'llah,' the last 'Abbasid Khalifa, at the

sack of Baghdad in 1258 ;in its day as memorable

an event as the fall of the capital of the ancient

Byzantine empire two centuries after.

What was the effect of the capture of Con-

stantinople upon the Sultanate ? It transformed a

chieftain and military leader into an emperor. The

Turks looked upon Constantinople as the capital of

the world and felt their own importance increased bytheir occupation of it. The Greek emperors had

assumed to themselves, as by divine right, the leader-

ship of Christendom. The Turks sought to emulate

their example and, in course of time, the Sultans

became de facto, though not de jure, the Khalifas of

the Islamic world. The simplicity of the camp life

was changed for the pomp and luxur}- of an oriental

court. This was one among many causes which

finally led to the decline of the Ottoman empire.

Muhammad increased his European dominions bythe conquest of a great part of Serbia, with the

exception of Belgrade. Flushed with the conquestof Constantinople, he looked upon the capture of

Belgrade as an easy task. He \\as mistaken. The

garrison made a gallant resistance under John

Capistran and Hunyady. On July 21, 1456, the

' The Umayyad and the Ahhdsid Khhalifates, pp. 106, 108

SKANDERBEG 39

great assault was made, the Janissaries carried the

trenches and advanced within the walls, only to be

repelled by the courage of the besieged. Then

Capistran, filled with a fiery zeal, led his men right

into the Turkish camp, and they carried all before

them. In all this he was ably seconded by Hunyady,before whose troops the Turkish army fled, defeated

and depressed. Hunyady survived this crowning

triumph of his career less than a month ; and shortly

after John Capistran also passed away. In after

years he was canonized by the Pope for his valiant

deeds, which well deserved the veneration of Chris-

tendom, and which are remembered in Belgrade,

that city of man}- sieges, to this day.

Bosnia was also attacked and the king and his

sons gave themselves up on condition that their

lives should be spared. Muhammad with the consent

of his chief legal adviser broke his promise and the

king was assassinated. His progress further north

was arrested by the bravery of Hunyady. In Albania

he was long and successfully opposed by Skanderbeg

(Iskender Beg—Prince Alexander) the national hero

of the Albanians.

I give a short account of this remarkable man.

His father was the hereditary prince of a district in

Albania, who had to pay tribute to the Sultan and in

1423 to deliver up to Sultan Murad II his four sons

as pledges of his fidelit}-. They were made Muslims.

The one with whom we are now concerned was well


educated, trained for the army and promoted to high

rank. He was a great favourite with Sultan Murad.

When his father died, his brothers were poisoned

and the principahty was annexed by the Turks.

Skanderbeg, however, dissembled his resentment at

this cruelty and injustice and patiently abided the

time when he could become an independent ruler in

his own land. In 1443 he found his opportunity.

He deserted his post, and by an act of treachery,

involving murder, he gained possession of Croca the

chief city in Albania, and proclaimed himself a

Christian. Murad sent three expeditions against him

and they all failed. Muhammad succeeded no better

and in 1461 concluded a treaty by which Skanderbegwas recognized as the independent ruler of Albania.

For five and twenty years he kept his country free

and so prevented the Turkish advance into Italy.

After his death in 1467 his son and successor sold

Albania to the Venetians, who in 1478 resold it to

the Turks. It then became a Turkish province,

unruly from the first daj's until no\\' when the

doubtful gift of autonomy has been granted to it.

The Venetian republic was next attacked but

saved by a treaty made in 1479, which was muchto its disadvantage. Greece, some of the islands in

the Aegean, and Sinope and Trebizond in the Black

Sea became part of the Turkish empire.

The Turks had now begun to form a nav\- and

a powerful expedition was sent to capture Rhodes

THE OTTOMAN NAVY 41

in 1480, but owing to the bravery of the Knights

of St. John it entirely failed. One result, however,

of this war was that the Turks gained command of

the sea. During the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries no Christian flag was allowed to navigate

the Euxine.'

All knowledge of its shores was lost,

its cities lay beyond the sphere of trade and the

countries once frequented by Genoese and Venetian

merchants became as much a region of mystery as

they had been before Jason made his voyage in

search of the Golden Fleece.'' The Turks also

had a great fleet in the Mediterranean and were

thus enabled to land a force in the year 1480 on

Italian soil and stormed Otranto, a fort near Brin-

disi, many of the inhabitants of which were cruelly

put to death. The Sultan intended to follow up this

initial success, for in the words of Gibbon '

his

lofty genius aspired to the conquest of Italy and the

same reign might have been decorated with the

trophies of the new and the ancient Rome.' ^

Sultan Muhammad was more than a warrior, he

was a distinguished administrator ;

^ and a brief

account of the political system which, based on that

'

Finlay, Histoiy of Greece (London, 1856), p. 125.

'^ Gibbon, Roman Evipire, vol. vii, p. 340.

^ ' Muhammad II was one of those great men whose personal

conduct, from their superiority of talent and firmness of purpose,

modifies the course of public events, when it is granted to them, as

it was to him, to exercise their influence during a long period of

time.' Finlay, History of Greece (London, 1856), p. 19.


of previous rulers, was perfected by him will be of

interest. The Institutes of Muhammad in their

figurative language describe the empire under the

metaphor of a tent. The '

lofty door of the royal

tent'

denotes the chief seat of government. In

Italian this is La Porta Suhlima from which wehave the

' Sublime Porte'

b}- which to this day the

Turkish Government is known. The state is re-

presented as being supported by four pillars : the

viziers, the judges, the treasurers, the secretaries.

The viziers were four in number, the chief of whomwas the Grand Vizier. The council of state was

known as the Divan, with its many officials. The

provincial administration was in the hands of Beysand Derebeys who held land on a feudal tenure.

At first the term Pasha was a title of honour, but

gradually it became limited in its use and practically

synonymous with the rank of a military leader, or

the office of a civilian governor. The land of a

conquered country was divided into three parts.

The first was set aside for the support of mosquesand other pious foundations. Such property was

waqf, that is, reserved for religious purposes, and

could not be alienated. A second part became the

private property of the individuals into whose

possession it came. If the owner was a Muslim he

paid tithes ; if a Christian a tax on the land, called

kharaj and in addition the jizya, or poll-tax. Thethird portion was subdivided into man)- parts.

THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 43

Some went to the Sultan and his family ; some to

various officials and some to the holders of military

fiefs. A fief often contained from three to five

hundred acres. The owner had to supply when

required a number of horsemen for the arm}'. A

Sandjak Bey had to bring into the field more than

twenty fully-armed horsemen, the Ziams any number

between four and nineteen, the Timariots camealone or with two or three followers.^ These fiefs

were held as hereditar\- property.

The feudal system in Europe grew up under

comparatively weak rulers ; in Turke}' it came into

existence under strong and vigorous ones. Theresult was that in the former case it resulted in the

growth of a powerful aristocrac}- ;in the latter it

did not. The reasons for this striking difference

seem to have been : (1) the Sultans during the period

of the rise of the empire were vigorous, energetic

and able men ; (2) the religious system of Islam

exalts the position of the ruler but maintains a

feeling of equality between his subjects ; (3) the

absence of any deep-seated desire for popularassemblies.

The feudal s}stem was used for national defence,

but, whether for good or ill, seems to ha\'e had

little influence on the administration of the country.

' For an exhaustive description of the military contingents duefrom each fief, see The Travels of Evliya (London, 1846), pp.101-3.


Later on, when the era of feeble Sultans set in,

these feudal lords—the Derebeys—became heredi-

tary chiefs and a powerful aristocracy owning little

allegiance to the central government and had

finally to be suppressed by Sultan Muhammad in the

nineteenth century.

Muhammad II looked upon the 'Ulama'^ as an im-

portant body of men learned in dogmatics and law,

from whom religious teachers and legists were

drawn. They were organized into a distinct body,

and arrangements were made for their education

and training. They were treated with honour bythe government and so, as professors and judges,

commanded the respect of the people. Schools,

from the simple maktabs, or elementarj' schools, and

colleges were founded. The whole system of edu-

cation was good and suitable for its purpose. The

regulations for the non- Christian subjects were those

common to all Muslim countries. They were

Dhimmis, that is, they were allowed to live on

payment of a poll-tax. Under fanatical rulers their

lot was a hard one, but generally speaking theywere fairly well-treated, except in the matter of the

tribute of their children for the corps of Janissaries.

When the Ottoman empire was powerful conver-

sions to Islam were frequent, and such renegades

were often promoted to high offices. During the

• Plural form of 'Alim, a learned man.

PRINCE JEM 45

reigns of Suleyman land Salim II out of ten Grand

Viziers eight were renegades.^

In addition to all these important matters of

administration Muhammad gave personal attention

to the rules for ceremonial etiquette, police regula-

tions, and the criminal law. The regulations for

these were codified under his supervision. This

code is known as the Mideka' it' I-Ahhdr—The Con-

fluence of Seas—a name which expresses the com-

prehensiveness of its enactments. It was for a long

time, and may be still, an important legal code in

the Ottoman empire.I conclude this notice of the administration of

Muhammad II b}' a quotation from his Institutes

which shows that amidst much that was admirable

there was that which is inhuman and detestable. It

is thus recorded :—

The majority of my jurists have pronounced that

those of my illustrious descendants who ascend the

throne may put their brothers to death, in order to

secure the repose of the world. It will be their dutyto act accordingly.^

Prince Jem (Jcmshid), the older and abler of

Muhammad's two sons, a man who possessed his

father's vigour and was courteous and cultured, did

^ For an account of the skilful way in which Muhammad dealt

with the Greek clergy, see Finlay, History of Greece (London,

1856), pp. 161-4.' Von Hammer, Geschichte Osmanischen Retches (Buda-Pesth

1835), book xvii.


not hear of his father's death until Baj'azid had

reached Constantinople and secured the allegiance of

the Janissaries, and soBayazid II ascended the throne.

He had to reward the Janissaries, and this led to

the establishment of the custom of the accession-

bakshish, granted to them when a new Sultan came

to the throne. His long reign (1481-1512) was not

n glorious one, for the Sultan was a very lethargic

and incompetent ruler. Prince Jem contested the

succession for a year, but was beaten and found

refuge with the knights of Rhodes, to whom Bayazid,

after some vain attempts to come to terms with Jem,

paid a large sum of money to keep Jem a prisoner.

The knights then sent him to one of their settle-

ments at Nice. The various European rulers were

anxious to gain possession of the prince. Charles

VIII of France took Jem away from the knights

and consigned him to the custody of Pope Innocent

VIII, who then agreed to keep him safe, and

received for so doing the sum of 40,000 ducats a

year from Bayazid. During the long years of Jem's

captivity many kings and princes held out hopes

of his restoration to the Sultanate and indeed it

was this which Bayazid feared. The next Pope,

Alexander Borgia, demanded a lump sum down for

his work as jailer. Then the king of France again

intervened and took possession of the unhappy Jem ;

but it is said that Borgia in revenge caused Jem to

be poisoned. Some, however, say he died of grief

SALIM I 47

in 1494. Whichever storv is true the whole transac-

tion was shameful. For the sake of money the head

of the Church and the Grand Master of a great

Order betrayed a man worthy of all the support

they could give him. It was a disgraceful act in the

intercourse of Christendom with Turkey. In capti-

vity Prince Jem occupied his time in composing

poetry, of which the following is a specimen :—

Bird of my soul, be patient of thy cage,

This body, lo ! how fast it wastes with age,The tinkling bells already do I hear

Proclaim the caravan's departure near ;

Soon shall it reach the land of nothingnessAnd thee, from fleshly bonds delivered, bless.

In the north there were frequent wars with

var}-ing success to either side. A war with Shah

Isma'il of Persia gave some trouble. The Mamluks

of Egypt also waged war upon the Turks in Asia.

Bayazid's later years were troubled by the dissensions

among his sons. Salim the younger and most

vigorous of them, supported b}' the Janissaries,

attacked his father's troops at Adrianople, and caused

him to abdicate in his favour. Bajazid died soon

after to the great relief of the rulers and people of

the neighbouring states.

Salim I (1512-20) had two brothers alive, and

several nephews. He determined to put them all

away. He watched from a window the murder of

five nephe\\s. Being thus secure from domestic


strife he turned his attention to his eastern domin-

ions. He first attacked the Safavid monarch Shah

Isma'il, the head of the Shi'ah MusHms. The contest

was long but in the battle of Chaldiran (1514) the

Turks won a great victory, captured Tabriz, and sent

a thousand of its skilled workmen to Constanti-

nople. Salim had made a vow that, if he won a

victory over Shi'ah Persians, he would build three

grand mosques—one at Jerusalem, another in Buda

and a third at Rome ; but his death prevented the

fulfilment—-or attempt at fulfilment—of his vow.

After the Persian campaign he resolved to wrest

Egypt from the Mamluks. In this he was success-

ful, and thus nearly doubled the extent of the

Ottoman dominions. Egypt became a province of

Turkey, and the rule of the Mamluk Sultans came

to an end. The Mamluks as a separate body,

however, remained under their Shaikhu'l-Beled, or

Mayor, a powerful community and often gave

trouble to the Turkish governor.

The Mamluks had revived the 'Abbasid Khalifate

in Cairo,' and Salim brought away with him to

Constantinople, the Khalifa, Mutawakkil, who made

over to him his spiritual authority, such as it was,

and Salim became the Khalifa of Islam. Mutawak-

kil had no authority whatever to do this, for none

but a member of the Arab tribe of the Quraish

' See The Mamluks in Egypt (C.L.S.) pp. 6-9.

BARBAROSSA 49

should hold this office. He also gave up the symbolsof the office, the sacred banner and cloak of the

Prophet, which are still preserved in the Seraglio at

Constantinople. However, whatever he was de jure,Salim became de facto the Khalifa over all the

orthodox section of Muslims who elect to own his

authority. The office is now shorn of any real

power, but it adds somewhat to the prestige of the

Sultans of Turkey, some of whom, such as 'Abdu'l-

Hamid I, have in vain tried to use it to foster a

pan-Islamic movement.

When Muhammad II captured the island of

Lesbos in 1462 he left there a soldier named Ya'qub,whose two sons, Uruj Barbarossa and Khairu'd-din,^

became successful mariners and famous Corsairs.

Soon after the conquest of Egypt, Salim received

messengers from Khairu'd-din, asking for his favour

and protection, offering in return to make over

the province of Algiers which he had won. TheSultan was delighted, accepted the proposal, and so

added a new and valuable province to his African

dominions (1519). The bold Corsair was made

Beglerbeg (governor) of Algiers and invested with

''

It is possible that Barbarossa is but a European corruption of

Baba Uruj or Father Uruj, as his men called him. At all events

Uruj is the real Barbarossa, though modern writers generally give

the name to his younger brother, Khairu'd-din, who was only

called Barbarossa on account of his kinship to the original.'

S. Lane-Poole, The Barbarry Corsairs, p. 38, foot-note.

4


the insignia of office—the horse, the sword, and the

horse-tail banners.

Sahm, a bold and vigorous warrior, was cruel in

his disposition and practice. In the year 1514 he

ordered the massacre of forty thousand Shi'ahs and

then prepared to murder the Christians. He asked

the Shaikhu'l-Islam whether the conversion of the

nations to Islam was better than their conquest.

The answer was in the affirmative. To the horror

of his advisers the Sultan then ordered that all

Christians should be slain and that their churches

should be turned into mosques. The Shaikhu'l-Islam,

who had not expected that his reply would be thus

interpreted, with great difficulty saved the lives of

the Christians ;but could not preserve their churches,

though he gained permission for them, on the loss

of their beautiful sanctuaries, to worship in mean

and inferior buildings.

The next Sultan was Suleyman the Magnificent

(1520-66). He rightly deserves this name for his

long reign was one of the most brilliant in Turkish

history. It was a century of great rulers—Charles V,

Francis I, Elizabeth, and Akbar—and amongst them

all Suleyman held no second place. It has been

well said :—

The most remarkable feat that the Turks achieved

during the glorious century was that they survived it.

With such forces as were arrayed against them, with

Europe roused from its long sleep, and ready to seize

arms and avenge its long disgrace upon the infidels, it

THE CAPTURE OF RHODES 51

was to be expected that the fall of the Ottoman powermust ensure. Instead, we shall see that this power wasnot only able to meet the whole array of rejuvenated

Europe on equal terms, but emerged from the conflict

stronger and more triumphant than ever.^

Muhammad II had failed to capture Belgrade or

to get possession of the island of Rhodes. Suleymansucceeded in securing both. Belgrade was then

fortified more strongly and the possession of it

brought Venice as a humble suppliant, willing as the

price of safety to become the Sultan's vassal. Nowthat Egypt was a part of the empire, it became

highly necessary to secure Rhodes in order to get

command of the sea, and so in 1522 a powerful

expedition of over a hundred thousand troops was

despatched. The Turkish troops were skilled in

attacking fortified positions and possessed artillery

far superior to that of their opponents ;so the siege

was prosecuted with great vigour. The garrison

consisted of 5,000 men, of whom 500 were knights.

The seamen of the port and the citizens rendered

valuable assistance, but the Grand Master and his

knights looked in vain for succour from Europe, and

so after a brave defence of several months they

capitulated on honourable terms, being allowed to

depart with weapons and property. They retired to

Malta, which shortl}- after they successfully defend-

ed against Suleyman. The Sultan had a personal

1 S. Lane-Poole, Turkey, p. 166.


interview with the Grand Master, Vilhers de L'Isle

Adam, a French knight of renown, and expressedto him his regret at having to make him leave his

ancient home at Rhodes. The valour of the knightshad won the admiration of the Ottomans and the

armorial bearings on their houses were not defaced

and some of them may be seen even to this day.The inhabitants of Rhodes also received good terms,

for Suleyman could be a generous victor. Theywere to have unrestricted liberty as regards religion,

and were exempted from the payment of tribute for

five years.

A short period of peace followed in which the

Sultan attended to the internal affairs of the empire.

An attempt to curtail the large donations to the

Janissaries led to trouble with that masterful and

turbulent body. The best way to keep them quiet

was to find them warlike occupation and the chance

of securing booty. This plan was supported by the

able Vizier Ibrahim. This wise and prudent official,

in whom the Sultan placed implicit trust, had been

captured as a lad by Corsairs, sold as a slave and

passed into the service of Prince Suleyman when

he was a provincial governor. Ibrahim became an

accomplished scholar and an amusing entertainer,

and so rapidh' rose in his master's favour until he

reached the high office of Vizier. When Suleymanbecame Sultan, Ibrahim strongly urged the war

against Hungar}- which took place in 1526.

BATTLE OF MOHACS 53

The Turkish army, 100,000 strong with three

hundred guns, marched out from Belgrade, crossed

the Danube, tooi< several cities and finally on the

field of Mohacs (August 28, 1526), defeated the

Hungarian army under king Louis IL The

Hungarian force was much smaller than that of the

Turks, but they rushed boldly to the attack and

easily overcame the first line of the opposing army.

They had forgotten the Ottoman tactics of placinginferior troops in the van {ante p. 8) and thoughtthat victory was near, but behind the retreating

troops were three hundred guns and the famous

corps of the Janissaries. The result was a most

disastrous defeat for the Hungarians. Twentythousand men perished. The king, bishops and

archbishops, and a great number of lords and manynobles gave up their lives on the fatal field of

Mohacs. Buda and Pesth were occupied; the countryround was ravaged ; and one hundred thousand

captives were taken away to be sold as slaves. The

great library in the palace of Hunyady's famous son

Matthias,^ one of the ablest kings of Hungary, was

taken to Constantinople.^ The defeat at Mohacs

ruined Hungary and petty strife amongst the nobles

ensued, the result of which was that for a hundred

^ For an account of this great ruler, see Vambery, Hungary,ch. X.

. 'Vambery says the library was burnt {Hungary, p. 289) ; but on

p. 295 he says part of it was taken to Constantinople.


and forty years. Hungary became a province of the

Turkish empire.

Then began a dispute with the emperor Charles

V. * The Turks appointed Zapolya who had been

the Voyvode of Transylvania as the nominal king of

Hungary ;but the Archduke Ferdinand, brother of

the emperor Charles, claimed the throne. Francis

I of France, not wishing to see the emperor's power

increased, urged the Turks to withstand Ferdinand's

claim. Zapolya appealed to Suleyman, who re-

solved to interfere in this civil war. He declined

all overtures made by Ferdinand and again took the

field with an enormous army ; he recaptured Buda

which for a hundred and fortv vears onwards was

controlled by the Turks. He also restored Zapolyato his throne.

The Sultan now determined on a bold stroke and

advanced to besiege Vienna. His irregular cavalry

devastated the country through which they passed^

plundering and destroying all they could lay hands

on, and carrying off men, women and children into

captivity. Meanwhile, Austria made great efforts

to meet the danger, and Vienna was provisioned

and made ready for a siege. Houses were destroyed

' King Louis died without leaving a son and heir. By an

ancient law of Hungary only a native prince could reign, and on

this law Zapolya based his claim. Ferdinand was brother-in-law

to Louis and on that relationship and also on a treaty claimed

the throne.

FIRST SIEGE OF VIENNA 55

near the wall, which was strengthened in its weakest

parts and entrenchments were made on the banks of

the Danube. Non-combatants were sent away and

many fell victims to Suleyman's ruthless soldiers

whom they encountered in their light.

The garrison of Vienna consisted of less than

twenty-five thousand men ; but they were brave and

determined. They successfully repelled all assaults

and maintained excellent spirits.^

Suleyman had

once made a vow that he would breakfast in Vienna,and now as the attack went on and was successfully

met, the Viennese sent to tell him that his breakfast

was getting cold. The last assault led by the

Janissaries failed and the siege which had lasted

three weeks was raised (October 14, 1529). It was'

a famous day in German history : it is the anniver-

sary of the peace of Westphalia and of Vienna,the battles of Hochkirchen, Jenu and Leipsic andof the capture of Ulm. '* Four years after, peacewas made (1533) and Hungary was divided between

Zapolya and Ferdinand. The peace did not last

long and another war was made, which ended in

Ferdinand's consenting to pay a large annual tribute.

A five years truce was then made, after which hostil-

ities recommenced and continued during the rest of

the Sultan's life.

' For a good account of the defence of Vienna, see Creasy,

History of the Ottoman Turks, pp. 269-74.

'S. Lane-Poole. Turkey, p. 191.


Meanwhile the Shi'ah subjects of the empirein Asia had been giving very much trouble ; but

Suleyman very soon put the revolt down, captured

Baghdad in 1534, and then annexed the whole

country of Armenia. Successful by land, the Sultan

also asserted his power at sea under his famous

admiral Khairu'ddin. This brought him into con-

flict with Venice.

In Suleyman's reign the naval power of the

Ottomans increased rapidly, Uruj Barbarossa was

dead, but his brother Khairu'd-din, also called

Barbarossa, was a man of great courage and

determination. He had been appointed Governor-

General of Algiers by Salim I in 1519, and soon the

ports of Barbary passed into his possession and his

Corsairs were masters of the sea. Their prizes

were rich and numerous, and he rescued manythousands of Moors then in servitude in Spain.

Suleyman appreciated the valuable aid which the

number and boldness of the Corsairs gave him. Hewas anxious to see and consult Barbarossa and in

1533 the great Corsair sailed from Algiers to

Constantinople, where he was received with muchhonour. He spent the winter there, improved the

build of vessels of war, and in the spring had a

formidable fleet of ships ready for sea. He led

them into the Straits of Messina, bombarded

Reggio, captured many vessels and did damage to

the coast towns. He captured Tunis, but was

ANDREA DORIA 57

driven a\\ay by an expedition sent by Charles V,

He then proceeded to Minorca, gained muchtreasure and many prisoners, all of whom he took

to Algiers, and in due course returned to Constanti-

nople. He was now made Captain Pasha, or

admiral of the fleet. Meanwhile, the great Genoese

admiral, Andrea Doria, was scouring the seas in

search of Barbarossa. At last they met, for a warwith Venice had broken out. The Venetian fleet wasin the Adriatic and Barbarossa in 1538 went to meet

it, with one hundred and fifty ships. Many of the

most famous Corsairs of the day were with him.

The Venetian fleet was much larger, but he wasable to anchor in a spacious gulf. He wisely, in

view of his inferiority in the number of vessels,

determined to wait there till attacked. TheVenetian fleet appeared and both watched each

other for some time—Doria unwilling to attack ;

Barbarossa too good a strategist to come into the

open. Then Doria sailed away. The Turks could

not be restrained and set sail after him. A battle

ensued without any decisive result as regards the

destruction of either fleet, for Doria again sailed

away. Still it was a great moral victory for the

Turks. The most renowned admiral of the day,with two hundred ships of war belonging to three

great Christian states had sailed away before a

smaller Ottoman fleet. Suleyman was delightedwhen he heard the news, and henceforth for many


a long year to come the fleet of the Turkish Sultan

ruled supreme in the Mediterranean. About the

same time another fleet sailed into the Indian

Ocean and on the return voyage captured Aden.

Insurrections in Hungary recurred for some years

and in 1547 Sultan Suleyman, the emperor Charles

and king Ferdinand signed at Adrianople a truce

for five years, Ferdinand consenting to pay a tribute

of 20,000 ducats and to recognize all the Turkish

conquests in Hungary. This gave Suleyman some

leisure, and he was able to resume his contest with

Persia. He gained Armenia and Georgia and

captured Erzerum. The conflict lingered on for

some years, until in 1555 a treaty was made, the

first one ever signed by both Shah and Sultan.

In 1565 Suleyman made an unsuccessful attack

on Malta, now held by the Knights of St. John,

lately expelled from Rhodes. They fortified the

excellent harbours and strengthened the defences.

A fleet of one hundred and eighty-one vessels and an

army of 30,000 men comprised the expedition. For

four months the attack was maintained with vigour

and was met by a stubborn resistance. At last in the

beginning of September a fleet, sent by the Viceroy

of Sicily, appeared and the Turks departed. The

failure of this attempt was a cause of much grief to

Suleyman.'

;

' For a full account of the siege, see Creasy, History of the

Ottoman Turk's, vol. i, pp. 304-9.

SIEGE OF SZIGETVAR 59

Meanwhile irregular fighting went on in Hungaryfor some years. Then in 1566 Suleyman deter-

mined to make a supreme effort to restore order

and compel obedience to his will. For the sixth

time he invaded Hungary, this time with a force of

200,000 men and three hundred guns. He first

attacked the fortress of Szigetvar. Nicholas Zrinyi,

the commandant, was a brave man and, after

collecting in the fort about two thousand five

hundred men and a good stock of provisions, he

awaited the attack. The siege was prolongedand Zrinyi would listen to no promises of reward

for himself, and was deterred by no severe threats

of punishment for his obstinacy. The Sultan, wearied

with the delay and, perhaps, annoyed at being held

at bay by such a puny force, gave orders for a grandassault. It is thus described :

—The aged ruler, who now but rarely showed himself

to his soldiers, mounted his favourite charger and

appeared amongst the Janissaries in order to rouse and

encourage them. His troops rushed enthusiasticallyinto the fight, for which the artillery and the engineers

conducting the siege had made every preparation manydays before. But Zrinyi was ready and wide-awake,and drove the assailants back with great slaughter.

'

Another attack, made a few weeks later on,

succeeded, vet even then Zrinvi and his men

did not capitulate. He gathered the little band

together in the inner fort to which they had

^ Vambery. Hungary, p. 315.


retired, praised them for their courage and, sayingthat the road to death was the road to honour, urgedthem to show that the conclusion of their heroic

career was worthy of their past. The bridge was

lowered and Zrinyi and his faithful six hundred

followers sallied forth, and after a tierce struggle all

but a few soldiers perished. The Turks rushed into

the fort, but a mine was exploded which led to

a loss of some thousands of men. The rest returned

home, after losing 30,000 men in the capture of the

city. Zrinyi's fame spread far and wide and wonfor him the admiration of all Europe.A few days before the siege was over Suleyman

died in camp (September 6, 1566) after a reign of

forty-six years. A beautiful elegy by a Turkish poet

speaks of his burial thus :—

He, to the lustre of whose sword the Hunnish paynimbowed

;

He, whose dread sabre's flash hatli wrought the

wildered Frank's despairLike tender rose-leaf, gently laid he in the dust his

face ;

And earth, the guardian, placed hini like a jewel in

his case.

He was the greatest of all the Turkish rulers.

Wise in administration, just in his dealings, courte-

ous and cultivated, he rightly earned the name of

Suleyman the Magnificent. Yet like so manyeastern rulers, with all that was commendable and

praiseworthy, there was a vein of inhumanity

THE CAPITULATIONS 61

and cruelty in his character. He was personally

devoted to his able vizier Ibrahim, and yet one dayin 1536 from some cause or other he became jealous

of him and put him to death. He married a Russian

lady, named Khurrem (Joyous) but known by

Europeans as Roxelana. This lady had a son Salim

whose chance of becoming Sultan was barred by his

half-brother Mustafa. At Khurrem's instigation

Suleyman had Mustafa slain. Another son Bayazidand his young children met with a similar fate.

These were blots on a great career, marked on the

whole by more than the usual wisdom and justice

shown by oriental despots.

In his reign the first ambassador from France

came to his court (1534), and a year after the first

capitulations with France were made. '

Suleyman

'These were afterwards made with other European states. Byvirtue of the capitulations foreij^ners do not come sunder the

jurisdiction of Turkish courts of law. Their cases can onlybe tried in consular courts. Cases between foreigners and Turks

are tried in Turkish courts, but a consular dragoman is then

present to watch the procedure. In modern times, the Turks have

tried to do away with the capitulations but the European states

would not give way. In 1914, just before the declaration of warbetween England and Turkey, the Turkish Government, without

giving any notice, suddenly abolished them, and that is how the

matter stands at present. After the war is over the whole question

will be reopened and the action of the Turkish Government will

be condoned or repudiated. In the present chaotic state of the

Turkish administration it is not probable that the European states

will relinquish so necessary a safeguard for the legal protection of

their subjects.


left the empire, wealthy, prosperous and extended.

The annual revenue was 12,000,000 ducats, which

was double that of the great empire over which

Charles V ruled. Exports were large, trade was

ôod and the population was increasing. Later on

the extortion of the Pashas ruined commerce and

decreased the population, and the prosperous days of

Suleyman were known no more. In the eastern

parts of it were the famous cities of Baghdad,

Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo with man}- others;

in

Europe, Constantinople, x\drianople, Athens, Bel-

grade and Buda. Supreme at sea, the Turkish

fleets were masters of the Mediterranean, the Redand the Black Seas. The kings of Europe could

not withstand its power by land or sea. Nearlythree hundred years had passed away since

Ertoghul and his little band of Ottomans first came

into notice and now a great and mighty empire had

grown from so small a beginning. The Ottoman

empire had now reached the height of its fame, and

the zenith of its glory. Henceforth, there is decline

and decay ;but until now it had produced a most

remarkable series of rulers, to whose energy and

powers of administration, and to whose strong wills,

which made subjects obey and enemies fear, the

great prosperity of the Ottoman empire is mainlydue.

No other dynasty can boast such a succession of

brilliant sovereigns as those who conducted the Ottomans

FAMOUS SULTANS 63

to the height of renown in the fourteenth, fifteenth

and sixteenth centuries. Orkhan, the taker of Nicaeaand founder of the Janissaries ;

Murad I, the conquerorat Kosovo ; Bayazid I, the victor of Nicopohs ;

Muhammad I, tlie restorer of the shattered empire ;

Murad II, the antagonist of Hunyady and of Skander-

beg ; Muhammad II, the conqueror of Constantinople;Salim I, who annexed Kurdistan, Syria, and Egypt;and Suleyman the Magnificent, the victor on the field of

Mohacs and the besieger of Vienna. Ne\er did eightsuch sovereigns succeed one another (save for the feeble

Bayazid II) in unbroken succession in any other

country ;never was an empire founded and extended

during two such splendid centuries by such a series of

great rulers. In the hour of dismay, as well as in the

moment of triumph, the Turkish Sultan was master of

the situation.^

Still what has been so well said of Turkish rule in

India, is also true of the rule of the Ottoman Turks

in Europe, even in its most brilliant period. It

*does not mean the growth of constitutions, the

development of civic rights, the vindication of

individual liberty, or the evolution of self-govern-

ment.'

^


"^ S. Lane-Poole, Mcdiccval India, p. 60.

II. THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE

SULEYMAN was succeeded by his son Salim II

(1566-74). We now enter upon a period of decline,

arrested now and then by a brief period of recovery.

The Sultans of the past had been brave warriors

and skilful administrators, who kept their vast

dominions in order and extended them. Their

successors with a few exceptions were weak, de-

generate men, who preferred the jo}'S of the harem

to the stern realities of the battle field.' They lost

the esteem of the army which did what the body-

guards in Baghdad had done— set up and deposed

Sultans at its will. With effeminate Sultans, in-

competent officers and corrupt administrators, it is

no wonder that the decline was real and persistent.

It is only another example of what always takes

place in Muslim states. It was so in the latter

days of the 'Abbasid Khalifate in Baghdad, in

* They are thus described by a Mushm writer :

'

Instead of

identifying themselves with the Hfe of their people and priding

themselves on being the light that guided them, the Sultans now

retired into the harems and gave themselves up to a life of ease

and indulgence utterly foreign to the habits and principles of their

great predecessors.' 'Ali Haidar Midhat Bey, The Life of

Midhat Pasha (London. 1903), p. 14.

BATTLE OF LEPANTO 65

Spain at the close of the Umayjad Khalifate, in

Cairo when the earl)- and strong Mamluk rulers

like Beybars gave place to weak and inefficient men,

and in India in the last days of the decrepit Delhi

rulers.

Salim II was surnamed the Sot ; but so well had

the empire been organized by his great father that

it could not suddenly fall to pieces. He had the

good fortune to possess in Muhammad Sokolli an

efficient Vizier. Arabia was subdued, Cyprus was

captured and Tunisea became a Turkish province.

The Pope, Venice and Spain now united, and an

allied fleet under Don John of Austria, who had

already won fame in the wars against the Moors in

Spain, met and defeated the Turkish fleet at Lepan-to in 1571. The latter was the stronger force, but

after a severe conflict ninety-four Turkish vessels

were sunk and over a hundred were captured. This

great victor}^ did away with the idea that the

Turkish fleet was invincible ; but its material effect

was small. Venice withdrew from the alliance

and made a separate peace, and a ne\\" Turkish

fleet was soon got ready for sea. It was under the

command of Ochiali, the last of the great Corsairs.

He recaptured Tunis which Don John had taken in

1573, but nothing permanent followed from this

transient revival of naval power.

Murad III the next Sultan (1574-95) was a very

inefficient ruler. His first public act was to order

5


the assassination of his five brothers. Though he

kept SokolH in office he was jealous of him and

often thwarted his plans. Other able men were set

aside for those who purchased their appointments,

or were promoted through harem influence. The

corps of Janissaries now grew in strength to 48,000

men, as the regulations regarding admission were

much relaxed. Under the rule of a weak Sultan,

the growing power of this turbulent body of men

was a standing menace.

Next to the dowager Sultana, or as that lady is

usually called in Turkish the Sultana Valida, the

lady who had most influence over Murad was a

foreigner. Murad took as one of his wives a Vene-

tian captive lady, Safiyya, who exercised over her

husband and then over his son and successor great

influence, which she used always for the promotion

of her favourites. She contrived, however, to keep

the Sultan on good terms with Venice. It was

during this reign that the first British embassy was

sent to Constantinople (1589) with the view of

obtaining an alliance with the Turks against Philip

II of Spain.

The next Sultan was Muhammad III (1595-1603).

As soon as Murad was dead, Safiyya, now Sultana

Valida, recalled her son Muhammad from his pro-

vincial governorship and had him proclaimed Sultan.

He was a weak-minded man, though sometimes

energetic and more often violent. His father had a

SCIPIO CICALA 67

family of one hundred and three children, of whomtwent\' sons and twenty-seven daughters survived

him. One of the tirst acts of Muhammad was to

slay his nineteen brothers and seven enceinte female

slaves then in the harem. The political and military

affairs of the empire were in almost hopeless

confusion and the Sultan remained inactive. At last,

though against the wishes of his mother Safiyya, he

was induced to lead the army in person, as his

predecessors had so often done. The Shaikhu'l-

Islam warned him of the danger of non-compliance

with this request. For a time the tide of war went

against the Turks and the Sultan betrayed consider-

able weakness, but in the last conflict victory was

secured by the skilful tactics of a renegade named

Scipio Cicala. The rest of the reign was quite

inglorious, and the Sultan's last days were sullied

bv the murder of his son Mahmud, a prince of great

promise, who had excited his father's jealousy. The

mother of Mahmud and all his companions shared

his sad fate. The Sultan died on December 22, 1603,

unregretted and unlamented.

The courageous conduct of Scipio Cicala at the

battle of Cerestes saved the empire from disaster.

This young man was the son of an Italian Count

who owned a fleet of privateers. In one of his

forays he captured a number of Turkish ladies and

married one of the most beautiful of them, who was

baptized under the name of Lucretia. Her son


Cicala, in after years, was taken prisoner by the

Turks. He embraced Islam, rapidly rose to high

office and married the daughter of Sultan Suleyman.When he commanded the fleet he visited Sicily and

had an interview with his mother. The beautiful

woman, once a captive taken from her Turkish homeand forcibly converted into a Christian matron, stood

by her handsome son, who began his career as a

Christian warrior, but was now a mighty championof the Crescent and the determined foe of the Cross.

It would be interesting to know what they felt and

said. They never met again. Cicala was one of

many renegades who have attained to high office,

and in critical times have rendered valuable service

to the Ottoman state.

Sultan Ahmad I (1603-17) was a lad of fourteen

years of age, when he succeeded his father. His

reign is chiefly remarkable for the decline of the

haughty tone of superiority the Sultans had used

with other potentates. Austria ceased to pay a

tribute and its emperor ^âs respectfully named in

Turkish documents by his proper official title,

while in a treaty he was regarded as an equal

monarch.

The next Sultan, Mustafa I, reigned onl}- a few

months when he was deposed in favour of his brother

Uthman II (1618-22). The Janissaries, who nowelected their own Pasha and so were free from direct

imperial control, deposed Uthman and put him to

MURAD IV 69

death. Mustafa resumed authority but soon resignedin favour of his nephew.Murad IV (1623-40) was only twelve years old

when he ascended the throne, but he soon showed

signs of a strong character, fitted to deal with the

disorganized state of the empire. In this he wasaided b}- his mother, a woman of great abilit)' and

energy. In Asia and in Africa there were wars and

revolts. In Constantinople'

there was an emptytreasury, a dismantled arsenal, a debased coinage,exhausted magazines, a starving population and a

licentious soldiery.'^ Seldom has a young ruler

been called upon to face such adverse conditions.

As he grew up to man's estate, he met his difficulties

with resolution, and when he attained to power

ruthlessly punished his rebellious subjects.

Every morning the Bosphorus threw up on its shoresthe corpses of those who had been executed during the

preceding night ; and in them the anxious spectators

recognized Janissaries and Sipahis, whom they had latelyseen parading the streets in all the haughtiness of militarylicense.

^

The Sultan now twenty years old took an active

part and showed the utmost bravery in asserting

his authority. Unfortunately the severe measures

he had to adopt had a bad influence on his nature,

and he became a blood-thirsty tyrant. On the least

1 Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks, vol. i, p. 395.

2 Ibid., p. 402.


suspicion officials were put to death, and so great was

their fear that a summons to the Sultan's presence

was viewed with the greatest alarm, and before they

entered into his chamber, men made the ablutions

which usually preceded death. At first he only

executed traitors, then suspected officials, and finally

any person who excited his displeasure. In his later

years he became intemperate and still more ferocious.

A favourite saying of his was :

'

Vengeance never grows

decrepit, though she may grow grey.' He tolerated

no crime but his own, and so for the time saved

his country. He won a victory over the Persians

and captured Baghdad on November 15, 1638, which

has remained Turkish to this day. The defence was

strong and this so exasperated the Sultan that when

the city was won, he only spared three hundred menout of a garrison of thirt\- thousand. The rest

perished. He restored the navy, put down an

insurrection in Albania and brought an amount of

order into the administration which had long been

absent from it.

Apart from his capricious cruelty Murad IV was

a great Sultan and rendered good service to his

empire but his cruelties were long remembered.

One of his last acts was for no apparent reason

to order the death of his brother Ibrahim. TheSultana Valida concealed the victim and madethe Sultan believe that his order has been carried

out. It is recorded that Murad then'

grinned a

THE STRONG VIZIERS. 71

ghastly smile'

and tried to rise from his bed to see

the corpse of his brother. In this savage state of

mind he passed away on February 9, 1640.

The traveller Evli\'a Efendi tells us that Muradtook much interest in the great mosque of Santa

Sophia and worshipped there on Fridays. Heerected a wooden enclosure near the southern door

in which he placed cages of nightingales and so, in

the quaint language of Evliya,'

their sweet notes,

mingled with the sound of the Mu'adhdhin's voices^

filled the mosque with a harmony approaching that

of Paradise.'*

The next twelve Sultans until we come to

Mahmud II (1808) were rulers of no weight or

power. They were now brought up in the harems,

and Turkey owed whatever vitality she possessed in

those years to the vigour and ability of the Viziers.

The Khalifa of Islam was a negligable quantity

altogether. Of these Sultans, four were deposed,

one was assassinated and one resigned. Instead of

describing the events in the reign of each of these

incompetent rulers I shall take a rapid survey of the

principal political events until the accession of

Mahmud II in 1808.

During part of this period, if Sultans were weak,

many of the Viziers were strong men. Muhammad

Kuprili, an Albanian, who received that office in

1 Travels of Evliya (London, 1846). p. 48.


1656 reorganized the fleet, recovered many islands

which Venice had seized, and did much to arrest

temporarily the decline of the empire. He was a

strong and resolute man;armed with absolute

power, he could brook no opposition. He is said

to have executed thirty-six thousand persons during

his live years term of office. He was succeeded by

Koprili-zada Ahmad, an equally strong and able man,who maintained control over the provinces and,

though defeated in a war against Austria, was

able to conclude an advantageous treaty of peace

(1664). He also subdued the island of Crete. These

advantages were somewhat lessened by the brilliant

victory won by John Sobieski, King of Poland, over

the Turks at Lemberg in 1675. This town, recently

captured by the Russians, was the most northerly

point of the Turkish advance in Europe.The Cossacks of the Ukraine now began to assert

their independence and applied to Russia for aid,

the result of which wâs that Russia now received a

cession of territory by a treaty made in 1681, the

first of many to follow, all tending to weaken the

Turkish empire.

The Reformation had taken deep root in Hungary,but was opposed by the Austrian government, which

led on by the Jesuits initiated cruel persecutions

against the Protestants. The Magyars, who had

embraced the reformed faith, resented this and

revolted. The Austrians who were Romanists

SECOND SIEGE OF VIENNA 73

punished them with great severity. It so happenedthat at this time the grand Vizier, Kara Mustafa,

was a very ambitious man who could brook no

opposition,' and who saw in the civil war a grand

opportunity for gaining Hungary and curbing the

power of the House of Hapsburg. Whilst the

Turkish empire sorely needed repose and reform, it

was a foolish thing to enter upon a great war ;but

nothing could turn the Vizier from the desire to

immortalize his name with a great victory, and so

Sultan Muhammad IV and the Vizier in the spring

of 1683 set forth with an army of 400,000 men. It

was the most determined attempt the Turks had

ever made to crush the Christian nations. The

army marched towards Vienna and commenced

(July 14, 1683), the siege which has become so

memorable for its brilliant relief. The fortifications

of the city were in a bad state of repair and the

prospects of a sound defence were so poor that the

Emperor and his Court fled to Bavaria, and had the

grand Vizier hastened on, instead of wasting time

by devastating the country through which he passed,

he might have easily captured the city. The dela}"

was made good lise of by the people of Vienna, for

the whole population worked hard at the defences

and, as a precautionary measure, destroyed all

houses in the suburbs.

1 He reduced the corps of Janissaries to 17,000 men, but it soon

rose again to 50,000.


Though the emperor showed himself to be a

coward and ran away, there was a brave man left.

Count Stahremberg was a true hero and took chargeof the defence. For two months the siege was,

pressed with vigour, but each assault was bravely

repulsed and mines were met by counter mines s

still the little band of 20,000 combatants could not

hold out much longer. Their distressed condition

has been thus described :—

The assaults so far had indeed been fruitless, for theTurkish scimitar was no match for the German halberd,

sythe and battle-axe ; but the mines were creeping towardthe walls and sickness was raging in the city. To sick-

ness followed famine. Cats were so valuable that achase after the animal over the roofs became a recog-.nized form of sport. The relieving army was known to

be on the move, but would it come in time, or would it

succeed in driving away the still immense, thoughdiminishing, hosts of the Turks ?

'

John Sobieski, king of Poland, had bound himself'

by a treaty to assist the emperor Leopold of

Austria and both confirmed it bv an oath, sworn be-

fore the Pope's Legate. They, however, remem-

bered that the Pope claimed a dispensing power(ante p. 30) and so they added a clause to the

treaty which stated that'

it was not subject to

retraction by Papal dispensation '. Sobieski's army85,000 strong came up fresh and vigorous, and on

September 12 completely defeated the Turkish

1 S. Lane- Poole. Turkey, p. 231.

SECOND SIEGE OF \'IENNA 75

forces. The king's stirring address to the PoHsh

soldiers was :—

Warriors and friends ! Yonder in the plains are ourenemies. We have to hght them on a foreign soil, hut

we fight for our own country, and under the walls of

Vienna we are defending those of Warsaw and Cracow.We have to sa\-e to-day, not a single city, but the wholeof Christendom, of which the city of \'ienna is the

bulwark. The war is a holy one. There is a bless-

ing on our arms, and a crown of glory for him who falls.

You fight not for your earthly sovereign, but for the

King of Kings ... I have but one command to gi\e.Follow me ! The time is come for the young to wintheir spurs.

'

The Grand Vizier prepared for the fight by

slaughtering thirty thousand captives. This haughtycruel man was no general. He could slay helpless

prisoners but was unable to lead men to victory.

The defeat was complete. Three hundred guns and

a vast qunatit}" of war material were captured, the

Janissaries were destroyed, and the army was utterly

routed. Kara Mustafa incurred the displeasure of

his employer, and it is not perhaps to be regretted

that he paid with his life for his foolish ambition

and barbaric cruelty.

Vienna was, therefore, saved by the patient endur-

ance and heroism of its defenders, b}- the skilful

strategy of John Sobieski and the martial braveryof the relieving force. This was the last great effort

made by the Turks to gain more ground in Europeand it failed. They never recovered from the blow,

1 S. Lane-Poole. Turkey, p. 247.


and it now became possible for Hungary, so longthe scence of continual wars, to regain her liberty.

A few years after, the troops mutinied, dethroned

Muhammad IV and placed his brother Suleyman II

(1687-91) on the throne.

From this time onward the gradual decline of the

empire is shown by the various treaties made with

foreign nations. The treaty of Carlowitz in 1699

took away from Turkey a good part of her Hun-

garian possessions ; and Trans^-lvania went to

Austria. There were other adjustments of territory

with Poland and Russia. Nineteen years later the

remaining provinces in Hungary were given up and

Turkish rule there ceased as entirely as that of the

Moors in Spain had done in the fifteenth century.

In the latter case the Moors left behind memorials

of civilization, industry and art which added some

glory to their rule ;in Hungary the memorials of

Turkish occupation were ruin and devastation.

The\- left nothing to add any relief 'to the sad

picture of the misery they had caused.

The treaty of Carlowitz is an important event for

it marks the end of Turkey's power as a military

nation for offensive purposes in Europe. She was

no longer a standing menace to her neighbours in

the north. It was also the first occasion on which

the representatives of other Powers had taken any

part in peace negotiations. Von Hammer says of

this treaty :—

THE GROWING POWER OF RUSSIA 77

It marks the period when men ceased to dread the

Ottoman empire as an aggressive power ; it was thenthat the Porte and Russia took part, for the first time,in a general European congress ; and by admitting the

representatives of England and Holland, neither of

which states was a party to the war, both the Sultanand the Czar admitted the principle of the interventionof the European Powers, one with another, for the sakeof the general good.

^

An attempt to use the interval of peace for the

promotion of internal reforms raised up much

opposition and the Sultan, Mustafa II, was deposed.The Russians were now a growing power and

their wars, alliances and treaties with Turke}' nowbecame constant. Charles XII of Sweden, after his

defeat at Pultowa (1709), took refuge in Turkey, and

the Sultan Ahmad III had the courage to refuse to

give him up to Peter the Great. This led to a war

with Russia. According to the custom, no\\ dis-.

continued, on the declaration of war the Turks im-

prisoned the Russian ambassador in the Castle of

the Seven Towers.

The Turks gained the initial advantage on the

banks of the river Pruth, and Peter found himself in

a precarious position ;but the empress Catherine

bribed the Grand Vizier and saved the position.

The treaty of the Pruth in 1711 and that of

Constantinople in 1720 gave Russia some advantageand accession of territory. Soon after this seven

1 Geschichte Osmanischen Reiches, vol. iii, p. 913.


provinces taken from Persia by Murad IV were re-

covered by Nadir Kiili Khan who in 1736 compelledthe successor of Ahmad III, the Sultan Mahmud I,

to recognize him as the Shah of Persia.

The reign of Ahmad III, compared with that of

many of his successors was not inglorious. He

improved the finances, and though he lost some terri-

tory he also gained some. He was a liberal patron

of literature and art. During his reign the first

printing press was set up in Constantinople.

In 1736 another war broke out and Russia in-

vaded the Crimea. Austria joined in and invaded

Bosnia, Serbia and Wallachia, all Turkish provinces.

The war was concluded by the treaty of Belgrade in

1739, by which that city was given up by Austria

and generally the Turks had the best of the bargain ;

and it seemed as if evil days might be long

deferred.

Later on trouble arose on account of the

aggressive policy of Russia in the neighbourhood of

the Caspian and the Black Seas and her interference

in the affairs of Poland, which led to its partition in

1772. The patriotic Poles appealed to the Sultan

for aid. This caused much anxiety in Constanti-

nople. In 1768 war was declared and the Russian

representative at the Porte was imprisoned. Thewar went on for some years and was unfavourable

to the Turks. Under the weak 'Abdu'l-Hamid I

(1773-89) matters grew worse. He had been

TREATY OF KAYNARJI 79

confined by his brother Sultan Mustafa III in the

harem for forty-three years, and now passed from

the monotony of a royal prison to the care and

anxieties of the throne. Naturally he proved to be

an incapable ruler. The financial position of the

empire was bad and the troops did not receive the

large donations usually given to them on the accession

of a new sovereign ; consequently they became de-

moralized. Under these circumstances the Turks

were compelled to accept the terms laid down in the

treaty of Kaynarji in 1774. No previous Sultan

had ever been asked to accept such onerous terms,

and this treaty shows how great a step had been

taken towards the dissolution of the Ottoman

empire. By it the Crimea was declared independent

under its own Khan. Moldavia and Wallachia were

restored to Turkey, but, as they were now formally

under the protection of Russia, they were practically

semi-independent states. Greek traders were per-

mitted to sail under the protection of the Russian

flag, which was an important step in the develop-

ment of the spirit of independence now arising in

that long subjugated land.'

Turkey also had to

pay a large war indemnity and by article vii of the

treaty the Sublime Porte undertook'

to protect the

' For other commercial results which followed from this trea-

ty, see Odysseus, Turkey in Europe, pp. 312-3 ; and for its

general terms, see Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks,

vol. ii, pp. 257-62.


Christian religion and its churches' and conceded to

the Minister of Russia the specific right to' make

representations in favour of the new church', which

under article xiv of the same treaty, the Russian

government was empowered to build.' This article

is of great historical importance, as forming the

basis of the later claim of Russia to possess by

treaty the right to protect the orthodox subjects of

the Porte.'^

A grandson of the empress Catherine was named

Constantine, and on a gate in Moscow the words' The way to Constantinople

'

were written. These

things indicated the policy of Russia which soon

began to take a practical turn. In 1779 a Russian

nominee was accepted as Khan of the Crimea and

in 1783 Russia annexed that province and has

retained it ever since. In 1786 Catherine made a

triumphal progress in the Crimea.

All this roused the Turks to action, and in 1788

war was again declared and was conducted with

ver\^ much savagery on both sides. The Russian

successes so affeted Sultan 'Abdu'l-Hamid I that

he died.

His successor, Salim III (1789-1807), wished to

carr)' on the war more strenuously but, as his gener-

als were incompetent and his troops in bad

humour, disaster after disaster followed. Further

^ Encyclopcedia Britannica (ed. xi), vol. xxvi, p. 454.

KARAGEORGIC 81

opposition was useless and the treaty of Jassy was

signed in 1792, by which the river Dniester was

made the frontier in Europe and Bels^rade was

restored to the Turks.

This peace did not, however, restore order in the

Turkish empire, and so great was the disorganiza-

tion that the Serbs saw in it an opportunity for re-

gaining some of their lost liberty. The Dahias, or

four chieftains of the Janissaries, had rebelled

against the Sultan and established themselves in

Serbia, where they did as they pleased and oppressed

the people.^ The Serbs in 1804 elected George

Petrovitch, better known as Karageorge (Black

George),'' commander-in-chief. He had passed an

adventurous youth as a soldier, and as a leader of

brigands. He was a man of simple habits of life,

bold and brave, just suited to the work in hand. ^

The Dahias were defeated and beheaded. The

Sultan now hoped that Serbia would remain loyal

to him, but the Turks were soon driven out of the

country and in 1807 the Sultan offered to grant

Serbia self-government with Karageorge as ruler ;

but Serbia declined all terms and allied itself with

' For a good account of these men, see Miller, The Balkan

States, pp. 30S-9.

'^ He received the nicknames of Tsrni Dyordye from the Serbs,

and of Karageorge from the Turks, on account of his dark com-

plexion and his gloomy, taciturn temper and disposition.

^See Miller, The Balkan States, pp. 311-2.

6


Russia in war upon Turkey. Russia hastily made

the treaty of Bucharest (1812), but entirely failed to

secure proper terms for Serbia, her faithful ally.

The Turks were now set free, and, on the refusal of

the Serbs to lay down their arms as a preliminary

of peace, they invaded Serbia. Karageorge and

most of the leading men found safety in flight to

Hungar5\ Two years after the Serbs under Milosh

Obronovitch rose in rebellion and so far succeeded

that in 1817 Serbia regained its autonomy under

the suzerainty of the Sultan, and Milosh was

declared hereditary prince of the country. In 1817

Karageorge suddenly returned to Serbia. Whether

he hoped to again place himself at the head of

affairs, or was sent by the Greeks to stir up Serbia

to a war with Turkey is not known. Anyhow the

Turkish Pasha at Belgrade demanded that he

should be delivered up. He was murdered in his

sleep and his head was sent to Belgrade for trans-

mission to Constantinople. He was ruthless in

many ways, but few men could have led undisplined

and badly-armed peasants to victory as he did.

He is one of the national heroes of the Serbs, a fact

which they recognized in 1842 by appointing his

son, Alexander, as Prince of Serbia and in 1903

his grandson, Peter Karageorgevich, to the same

dignity. The autonomy granted in 1817 was con-

firmed by the treaty of Adrianople in 1839. It

was not, however, until 1867 that all the Turkish

REFORMS OF SALIM 111 83

garrisons were withdrawn. By the treaty of

Berlin (1878) Serbia became an independent king-

dom, after long centuries of servitude. Since then

the Serbs have made great progress and have wonrenown as bold and successful warriors.

After this digression we must now return to affairs

in Turkey. Salim III soon saw that administrative

reforms were most urgently called for, and that an

improved army system was absolutely needed.

Everywhere disorder prevailed. The local gover-

nors oppressed the people and did as they pleased.

They opposed all attempts at reform. The Sultan

formed a new body of troops, called the Nizam-i-

Jedid, properly drilled and trained. Military schools

under European instructors were established and

the navy was improved. The Janissaries objected

to the whole scheme and supported the officials

in their opposition to reforms, both civil and

military. They demanded the abolition of the new

troops and their combined influence was strong

enough to enable them to dethrone the Sultan and

to proclaim his nephew as the new ruler under the

title of Mustafa IV (1807-8).

Meanwhile there were troubles in Serbia due to

the lawless conduct of the Janissaries. As we have

seen the Serbs under Karageorge, rose in rebellion

defeated the Janissaries and captured Belgrade.

Mustafa IV was not strong enough to carr}- out his

father's plans. The reforms which had been made


were abolished, and all who had been concerned in

them had to flee from the fury of the Janissaries.

The Pasha of Rustchuk responded to the call of

the men who had been in sympathy with Salim's

plans and marched on Constantinople in order to

restore Salim ; but before he could reach that city

Salim had been killed and Mustafa put to death.

Mahmud II (1808-39) was in many ways a

strong though despotic ruler. He came to the throne

at a period of great unrest, and, though his methods

are open to much criticism, it must be admitted that

he tried to introduce some reforms into the adminis-

tration. The decadence of the Ottoman empirehad now reached an acute stage. The central powerwas weak, the provinces were in revolt, the Janissaries

could not be controlled, and some of the great Pashas

were practically independent rulers. Until now the

subject races, though restive and ready at times to

help the enemies of the empire, had never risen to

achieve their own independence. They had been

crushed by centuries of despotism, and weakened bythe tribute of their children for the corps of the

Janissaries. This had now ceased and, as the flower

of provincial youth grew up into manhood, and

retained their religion and their national aspirations,

the weakness and submissiveness of the people in

the country districts passed away, and a new spirit

came upon the subject races so long cowed and

oppressed. Some of the peoples in the remote and

REFORMS OP^ MAHMUJ) II 85

mountainous regions had never really been conquered.The brave Montenegrins were an example of what

a small but bold communit}- could do. All this

showed the Sultan that he must grasp the reins of

government more tirmly. This he proceeded to

attempt.

The Sultan, feeling that his control over the great

Pashas was insufficient, now determined upon a

policy of centralization. In order to do this, it was

necessary to reduce the power of the local governors

who, in many cases, were practically independent of

the central government of Constantinople. The

Derebeys held their lands on a feudal tenure and

defied the Sultan's authoritv. The\- were often

guilty of extortion from the people over A\hom they

ruled, but still they were men who came from the

local families, and they accepted the position of

protectors of the people from outside rapacity. It

is doubtful whether the rule of officials sent from

Constantinople, who often paid large sums for their

appointments, was any real improvement in adminis-

tration, or any greater benefit to the people. If the

Derebeys exacted money, they spent it in the locality,

and the province as a whole became no poorer.

The peasant, when in want, found a chief willing to

assist him and so Bey and peasant got along fairly

well. Mahmud changed all this, resumed the fiefs

his predecessors had granted and so destroyed the

landed gentry. Possibly it was desirable to exercise


more central control, but the change needed to be

brought about gradually and cautiously.

One of the greatest of these governors was 'Ali

Pasha of Janina, who was practically independentin Albania and paid little attention to orders from

Constantinople, and yet he kept his district in order

and the Greeks quiet. He was slain in 1820. The

people liked their local rulers and did not approveof the corrupt officials sent from Constantinople. If

they were to be fleeced, they preferred that menwhom they knew should do it—men who would

take care that no one else should injure them.

Mahmud also realized that he must introduce

reforms into the military administration and become

independent of the Janissaries, now nominally a

force of 135,000 men. In 1825 he formed a bodyof regular troops called the Eshkenjis, and procuredfrom the Shaikhu'l-Islam a fatva to the effect that

it was quite lawful, and indeed a duty, for Muslims

to accept militar}^ service. The Janissaries, jealous

of their position and power, rose in revolt ; but

Mahmud was prepared for it. For years he had

been maturing his plans and in 1826 he struck the

blow. The rebellious troops met in the At-Maidan,

overturned the caldrons of the various regiments?

a signal of rebellion, attacked the house of their

Aga, who had agreed to the formation of the new

troops, and set about pillaging the cit}-. The

'Ulama' had stated that it was lawful to oppose and

END OF THE JANISSARIES 87

slay violent men, so the law was on the side of the

Sultan. War was declared and the sacred standard

of the Prophet was unfurled ;but a more effective

step was the presence of the large body of troops,

supported by artillery, which marched to the At-

Maidan. The Janissaries were asked to la}- down

their arms. This they refused to do. The order

to fire was then given to the artillery gunners, the

barracks of the Janissaries were set on fire and

large numbers were slain. Of the few who survived

the conflict some were afterwards executed, and

others were sent to the galleys. Thus perished this

famous corps which had won in earlier days so

man\' victories for the Ottoman arms ; but had now

degenerated into an idle turbulent mob. When the

Janissaries had been thus disposed of, the new armyon the European model was formed, in the training

and disciplining of which the Sultan himself took a

practical part. Still the loss of an old army before

a new one came into efficient being was a danger,

for trouble was at hand.

The Greek agitation for freedom now assumed

larger proportions. It was no new idea. As far

back as 1780 the Societ\" of Friends (Eraipict tmv

(piXtKOiv) had been formed and pursued its prosehtiz-

ing course. Other literary and patriotic societies

came into existence. There was a great revival of

literary activitN- and Greek schools were founded in

large numbers. The Hetairia now became a real


source of danger and the suppression of 'Ali Pasha

made its work easier. The Greek insurrection had

broken out in 1821 but was put down with much

severit}-.' The Patriarch, Gregorius, was executed.

This was a wanton and foolish act of revenge. It

was deeply resented in Russia, whose ambassador

was recalled. The Greek question caused muchtrouble to the leading European Powers and gaverise to many diplomatic conversations. Then in

1825 England recognized Greece as a belligerent

state; whereupon Russia, fearing she might lose

her position as a champion of the Greeks, suggested

a joint intervention of the Powers. This came to

nothing. The Sultan then determined to make a

supreme effort to subdue the rebellion. He sent to

Egypt and called in the aid of Muhammad 'Ali,

Governor of Egypt, who, as the reward for his

services, was to receive the island of Crete and the

control over Damascus and Syria. The result was

the complete conquest of Greece, the occupation of

Athens, and the deportation to Cairo of two thousand

Greek captives as slaves. This roused considerable

feeling against the Turks, but before anything

effective was done, Russia had her o\\ n grievances

to settle. The Porte resented all this outburst of

feeling and interference, but was too weak to resist

1 For a full account of this insurrection, see The Hiicyclo-

pcedia Britannica (ed. xi), vol. xii, pp. 493-5.

BATTLE OF NAVARINO 89

the demands made upon her. The new arm\- was

not ready and so the Sultan was obHged to agree

to the treaty of Akkerman (1826) in which, amongstother things, the autonomy of Serbia was recognized.

In the poHtical world further steps were then

taken with regard to Greece, and the Russian

susceptibilities were mollified b\- a request from

Great Britain to join in mutual representations to

the Porte. Austria and Prussia objected to any

pressure being brought to bear upon the Sultan and

so the treaty of London (1827) was signed only by

Russia, Great Britain and France. The object of

the treat)' was to secure the autonomy of Greece

under the suzerainty of the Sultan. Pending the

settlement of the question Greece accepted an

armistice, but Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian com-

mander, declined to do so without orders from the

Sultan. However, he agreed to detain his ships in

the harbour at Navarino. Ibrahim having heard

that some Greeks had attacked Turkish ships set

sail, but was met by the allied fleets and compelledto return. An accidental encounter led to a general

naval battle and to the entire destruction of the

Turkish and Egyptian fleets at Navarino on October

20, 1 827. The Egyptian army w as expelled from

the Morea. The Sultan was naturally deeph"incensed and a war with Russia ensued (1828-9).

It was concluded by the treaty of Adrianople (1829

by which Greece was made a tributary state,


governed by a prince selected by the Powers, and

the Danubian principahties became practically

independent states. On February 3, 1830, a protocol

was signed by the terms of which the suzerainty of

the Sultan was abolished and Greece became an

independent kingdom. Victor Berard^ in an eloquent

passage describes how Greece, having survived

through long ages in spite of many foes now came

to her own again. In the past Persians had invaded

and Rome had possessed her. Hordes of barbarians

ravaged and the Latins conquered her. Norman

soldiers, Turkish janissaries, Arab corsairs, Venetian

condottieri succeeded each other, to her loss, and

then passed away. Turks, Bulgarians, Austrians

had tried but could not destroy the indomitable

Grecian spirit which had survived all these centuries

of disaster and oppression.

Mahmiid felt the loss of Greece intensely, but nowanother calamity was about to happen. Muhammad'Ali, Governor of Egypt, the most powerful of all the

Sultan's vassals determined to claim his independ-

ence.'^ He asserted that before a stable governmentcould be established in Egypt, it must be free from

the control of Pashas sent from Constantinople.

This was sound policy and though there is much

1 See La Turqnie, p. 350.

^ For a good account of the early history of this remarkable manand of his character, see Cameron, Egypt in tlie Nineteenth

Century, chapters iv, and xix.

MUHAMIMAD 'ALI 91

that is blameworthy in the character and actions of

Muhammad 'Ah, he deserves credit for his accurate

perception of the needs of the situation and his skill

in meeting them. On November 1, 183 I.Muhammad'Ali invaded Syria. He had been promised the

Pashaliks of Syria and Damascus for help rendered

in Greece. He now said that he wished to take

possession of them. For a time the danger was

averted, but in 1839 the Sultan could restrain him-

self no longer, and against the advice of his ministers

and of the Powers determined to punish his rebellious

vassal. His army suffered a great defeat by an

Egyptian army under Ibrahim, a son of Muhammad'Ali. The news reached the Sultan just before his

death. In the treaty of 1841 Muhammad 'Ali was

confirmed in his possessions under the suzerainty of

the Sultan, and Egypt commenced a new career

which resulted in her eventually becoming indepen-dent of Turkish control.

Mahmud reigned for thirty years, during which

time he was involved in man\ wars and had to give

up valuable possessions. Greece, Egypt, Algiers were

lost to the empire. The principalities on the Danube

were no longer under the Sultan's control. Russia

gained many advantages, and the interference of

the Powers in the affairs of Turkey took a new shapeand assumed a more persistent character.

Mahmud doubtless made mistakes, but he should

be given credit for a worthy atteni[)t to reform the


administration. The following comment on his

work is sound and judicious :—

Now Sultan Mahmud possessed in an eminent degreethe destructive qualities of a Turk and a Musalman.Without being bound in his private conduct by the rules

of the Qur'an, he was in temper and policy a despotand a Caliph. . . . He is by no means deficient in the

natural qualities of judgement and resolution. . . but

what is to be expected of a sovereign, who from the

time of his accession, has made it the principle of his

government to preserve order and power by ruining

abruptly, or cutting off invidiously not the turbulent alone

and the aspiring officers of the Janissaries, but every

distinguished candidate for the honours of the state.

His reign of more than thirty years was marked by•disastrous wars and compulsory cessions. Greece,

Egypt and Algiers escaped from his grasp. On the

other hand, when he had crushed the mutinous Janissaries,

he introduced a system of reforms—to form a regular

army in the place of a fanatical factious militia. ... It

is easy to look back now with a pitying smile over the

failures, the broken vows, the paper constitutions, of half

a century of Ottoman history, and to wonder why people

expected so much of ?*Iahmud's reforms, why men hopedfor the regeneration of

'

the unspeakable Turk '—-aye

and continued to hope for many years after the reformingSultan had been laid in his grave ; but at the time there

was something touching in the strong, ignorant man's

struggle against the corruptions of his empire—his blind

feeling after the best means to raise his country to the

level of a European state. We do not imagine him an

ideal reformer, a man of broad views, and the wisdomthat comes from ripe study : his mind was built in a

narrow and unbending mould, and he did not dream of

such a regeneration of Turkey as Canning afterwards

attempted. But he saw the first obvious necessities

f government, and he made unhesitatingly in their

'ABDU'L-MEJID 93

direction. He knew that a strong ruler uplield l)y a

loyal and disciplined army alone could rescue the

empire and stem the tide of corruption and foreign

aggrandizement.It was a braxe eflort, and the more astonishing since

it was made in solitude and isolation. No one promptedMahmud, no one can be pointed out as having pro-

minently and voluntarily assisted him;what help he had

he commanded and he rewarded. It was his misfortune

as well as his glory to be before his age, to attempt

reform, however crude and elementary, at a time whenno one understood the necessity or believed in the policy.'

'Abdu'l-Mejid (1839-61), son of the late Sultan,

succeeded him. Fourteen years of peace followed

which allowed time for the further prosecution of

the reforms which Mahmud had set on foot ; but

the new Sultan, an amiable man, was not strong

enough to deal with the difficult position and the

many complicated questions which confronted him.

Stratford Canning thus sums up his character :—

The graciousness of his manner, and the intelligent,

though gentle and even melancholy, expression of his

countenance, warrant a hope, perhaps a sanguine one,

that with riper years and more experienced judgementhe may prove a real blessing and a source of strength to

his country.'

This sanguine hope was not fulfilled. Still

progress in reform was made, but it was due to the

untiring energy and tactful determination of the

British Ambassador at the Porte, Sir Stratford

is. Lane-Poole, Life of the Rt. Hon. Stratford Canning

(London, 1888). vol. i, pp. 399-400, 503 : vol. ii, pp. 72-3.

2Ibid., vol. ii. p. 81.


Canning, who from 1842 occupied a position of

supreme importance. He saw that, if Turkey was

to be saved, it must be from within and he eagerly

supported the men who, hke that enhghtenedstatesman Rashid Pasha, knowing something of

western civiHzation, saw that the old position of

isolation and contempt for things new must pass

away. Though opposed by the more conservative

party in the state, he was yet recognized as a true

friend. His personal character was high, his insight

keen, his judgement accurate. He rightly earned

the title of the Great Elchi (Ambassador). The

following statement gives us the key to his

success :—

Truthful and straightforward in all his ways, he nevercondescended to the tricks of diplomacy, and the Turkssoon began to pereeive that what Canning spoke wasthe truth. Gifted, moreover, with a sedate gravitywhich gave dignity and importance to the smallest

negotiations—and which was the more valuable becausemen knew that beneath the calm and polished surface layan impetuous, passionate spirit, impatient of restraint—the manner of the great Elchi was full of charm andpersuasion. . . . The Turkish Ministers and the Sultanhimself bowed themselves down before his righteousindignation. By force of character, by a certain admir-able violence, necessary in dealing with dilatory and

prevaricating people, by a kingly grace and courtesywhich stamped him as a gentleman of the true sort, butabove all by a manly unswerving honesty and straight-

forwardness, Stratford Canning acquired that extraordi-

nary influence which no Christian has exercised before

THE TAN ZIMAT 95

or since over the princes and statesmen of the Ottomanempire.^

Before Canning's rettirn to Constantinople, Rashid

Pasha, however, had persuaded the young Sultan,

soon after his accession, to promulgate the Tanzimat,or Hatt-i-Sharif of Gulhane. Its provisions were

good—the restraint of the use of arbitrary power by

state officials; security for life and property ; the

equality of subjects of all races and creeds before

the law. The latter clause was quite unexpected.The non-Muslim subjects of Turkey had ever been

kept in a condition of servitude, protected as tax

payers to keep up and support a dominant ruling

class. Sultan Ibrahim in 1644 had desired to

ameliorate their condition, but was opposed by the

Shaikhu'l-Islam. Mustafa Kuprili, the able Vizier

(1689-91) of Suleyman II did something to improvetheir position ; but the constant wars with Russia,

Serbia and other nations stimulated afresh the

feeling of resentment towards the Rayas, as the

Christian subjects of the Porte are called.

The Tanzimat was premature. It was not

favourably received by the ruling class. Rashid

Pasha had to resign his office of Vizier and a

strong reaction set in. Then came Stratford Canning,and year in and year out he laboured unceasingly

for justice to the Rayas, and against all injus-

tice and corruption in the administration in all

1 S. Lane-Poole, Turkey, pp. 351-2.


departments of the state. After a few \'ears he suc-

ceeded in obtaining the re-appointment of Rashid

Pasha, and then he made some progress. His

cardinal polic\" \\"as that there should be equal

citizenship for all. This was then a novel doctrine

in Turkey, and men were surprised when in 1844

he secured from the Sultan a promise that torture

should be abolished, obnoxious taxes repealed, and

last and greatest of all an order that apostates from

Islam to Christianity should not be put to death,^

and other concessions.

^ The teaching of the Qur'an on the subject of apostasy is not

very clear. There are two verses which may be quoted as having,

perhaps, an indirect bearing on the subject.'

For this cause

have we ordained to the children of Israel that he who slayeth

any one, unless it be a person guilty of slaughter or of spreading

disorder in the land, shall be as though he had slain all mankind '

[Suratu'l-Ma'ida (v) 35]. Apostasy may be brought under'

spreading disorder'

. Baidawi explains these words as'

poly-

theism and idolatry'

(0^.7=^*^^^^/^'). Another verse is:' As to those who return to their errors after the guidance hath

been made plain to them. Satan shall beguile them . . . the

angels in causing them to die, shall smite them on the face and

back'

[Suratu Muhammad (xlvii) 27, 29] . The immediate

reference is to those who were reluctant to follow the standard

of the Prophet in his early wars ; but Muslim jurists often makesuch limited judgements of universal application. Still, even then

the punishment decreed seems to be in a future life. However,all this matters little, as Muslim law depends on the Sunna as

well as on the Qur'an, and the Traditions are clear on the subject.

The law as it now stands is that apostates are outlaws, and a

person who kills an outlaw would not be liable to punishmentunder the law of Islam. See Mr. Justice 'Abdu'r-Rahim,Miihaminadan Jurisprudence (Madras, 1911), p. 253.

THE REFORM COMMISSION 97

It was one thing to get an order passed or a

promise made and quite another to see the one

obeyed or the other kept ; but the watchful eye of

the Ambassador was ever observant and no official

was safe whose misdeeds were brought to his notice.

The various proposals for the internal improvementof the administration made by Canning were

considered bv a Commission which sat at the Porte

in 1848, The trouble involved in all this is best

told by Canning's biographer :—

In December, 1848, a Commission sat at the Porte

to take into consideration the various proposals which

Canning had brought forward for the improvement of

the internal administration. In August, 1850, Canningreported that

'

nothing had occurred to enliven the

prospect '. His advice had been uniform and consistent,

but all the fruits were'

delays and evasions, unnecessary-

compromises, and weak compliances'

; corrupt practicesin office, a low revenue, high prices, a pernicious systemof recruiting the army and a worse one of farming the

taxes ; discontent in the frontier provinces, and afanatical spirit towards the Christians, who were mas-sacred in several of the more remote districts ; want of

inland communications, and a weak state of the militarydefences—in short an alarming decrepitude in every

department of the empire.^

Whilst all this was going on two serious political

troubles arose. A struggle for liberty in Hungaryhad been put down with much severity by Austria '

^ S. Lane-Poole, Life of the Rt. Hon. Stratford Canning,vol. ii, pp. 207, 210.

' See Vanbery, Hungary, ch. xv.

7


and Kossuth and other patriots found refuge in

Turkey in 1849. The emperors of Austria and

Russia demanded their extradition. The Turks

refused to give them up and were supported by Sir

Stratford Canning. It seemed as if war was immi-

nent but the appearance of the French and Enghshfleets at the Hellespont had the desired effect and

nothing further happened.The other affair, apparently insignificant in itself,

led to more serious consequences. By an arrange-

ment made between Sultan Mahmiid I and Louis

XV of France, French pilgrims and those from

other Christian nations had been placed under the

protection of the king of France. After that time

Russia had been persistent in her demands for the

pilgrims and clergy of the Orthodox Church. The

Latins and the orthodox monks had unseemly quar-

rels at Jerusalem which they might have been left

to settle by themselves ; but the emperor Napoleon

III, who disliked Russia,^ made it an opportunity

for seeking a quarrel with the Czar, and possibly

for gaining the favour of the priests in France. Hemade demands which were offensive to Russia,

and Turkey found it almost impossible to satisfy

both parties. A compromise was suggested, but

' The emperor Nicholas opposed the first Napoleon's assump-

tion of the title of emperor, and proposed a clause in the treaty

of Paris (1814) which would exclude the dynasty of Napoleon

from the throne of France. See Skrine, Russia, p. 149.

TREATY OF PARIS 99

Russia claimed a protectorate over all Turkish

subjects who belonged to the Orthodox Church.

This could not be granted and so Russia declared

war in 1853. England and France in 1854 joined

Turkey and the Crimean war began.

It was ended by the treaty of Paris in 1856. Bythe terms of that treaty Russia abandoned her

claim to exercise a protectorate over the Christians

in Turkey and to an exclusive right of interference

in the Danubian principalities. The contractingPowers agreed to guarantee the integrity and inde-

pendence of the Ottoman empire. The Sultan also

reafifirmed in the Hatt-i-Humayun the principles of

reform laid down in the Tanzimat of 1839. This newdecree—the Hatt-i-Humayiin

—-promising reforms

in the administration and better treatment of the

Christian subjects was embodied in the treaty of

Paris (1856). The Turks, however, are past masters

in the art of procrastination and this portion of the

treaty has been described as'

brave words and

nothing more '.

In this imperial proclamation the Sultan announc-

ed his desire of renewing and enlarging the numerous

improvements which had been introduced into his

institutions, with a view to making them worthy of

the place which his empire held among civilized

nations;he was anxious, he said, to ensure the

happiness of his people, who in his sight were all

equal, and equally dear to him, and \\ ith this object


he first confirmed the former guarantees of the

Hatt-i-Sharif of Gulhane to all his subjects, without

distinction of class or religion, for their security in

person, property and honour ;and at the same time

renewed all the privileges and spiritual immunities

granted ab antiquo and subsequently to Christian

and other non-Musulman communities established

in Turkey. The proclamation went on to enumerate

various ecclesiastical privileges, guaranteed the free

exercise of its religious rites and the control of its

sacred and educational buildings to each and every

sect ;and made the following announcement in bold

terms :—

Every distinction or designation, tending to make anyclass whatever of the subjects of my empire inferior to

another class on account of their religion, language or

race, shall be for ever effaced.^

But the treaty of Paris, while recognizing the

importance of the measure, specially enacted that the

recognition of the Hatt did not entitle any of the Powers,

collectively or severally, to interfere in the internal affairs

of the Ottoman empire. The qualification abrogatedwhatever effect the recognition might have had.^

Stratford Canning left Constantinople in 1858

and no one else possessed the same influence, or the

power of making Turkish ministers realize that the

safety of their country depended on internal reforms

1 S. Lane-Poole, Life of the Rt. Hon. Stratford Canningsvol. ii, pp. 440-1.

2 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 442.

REVOLTS IN THE BALKANS 101

and liberal measures for all classes of their subjects,so still more evil days were to befall the empire.

In June 1861 'Abdu'l-Mejid was succeeded by his

brother 'Abdu'l-'Aziz. Turkey was now admittedinto the ranks of the great Powers, and the newSultan, an ignorant and extravagant man, used the

position to incur a heavy national debt which broughtthe country to the verge of bankruptcy.

There were troubles in Serbia owing to the con-

tinued presence of Turkish garrisons in that country ;

but in 1867 they were withdrawn and thus one

great step was gained towards full independence. Aserious revolt also broke out in Bosnia and Herze-

govina in 1875; followed by one in Bulgaria in 1876.

These were put down with such severity and

barbarity that the sympathies of persons otherwise

friendly were alienated. The Sultan's extravagancehad depleted the treasury, and the strain on it owingto the military measures now taken caused the

financial situation to collapse aud Turkey became

bankrupt.Then a conspiracy was formed headed by Midhat

Pasha to bring about a change. The Shaikhu'l-Islam

issued a fatva authorizing the deposition of 'Abdu'l-

*Aziz.^ This was done in 1876 and soon after the

Sultan was found dead, it is said, killed by his own

^ For a full description of the way in which this was done, see

The Life of Midhat Pasha, pp. 83-C.


hand. His successor Murad V, a son of 'Abdu'l-.

Mejid, reigned three months, when he was deposed-

as an imbecile. Then on August 31, 1876, 'Abdu'l-

Hamid II, a brother of Murad, ascended the throne

and reigned until 1909.

The new Sultan like his predecessor was unwilling

to carry out any practical measure of reform, and as

years went on he exhibited a tyrannical spirit and took

no pains to suppress the most barbarous treatment

of his Christian subjects. At the commencement of

his reign, however, he had to make a show of

liberality, for soon after his accession a Conference

of the Powers met at Constantinople, but its very

moderate proposals were rejected by the Sultan, whoon December 23, 1876, promulgated a constitution

which had been prepared by the reforming party.^

The Sultan never had any intention of allowing

it to become operative. The formal proclamation

1 The leader of this party was Midhat Pasha, then Grand Vizier.

The new Sultan had made promises which raised the hopes of the

reformers and now gave his somewhat qualified approval to the

new constitution {see The Life of Midhat Pasha, pp. 128-30). If

he had then followed the advice of his wiser councillors, the

revolution which a few years ago led to his deposition might never

have occurred. Midhat Pasha was banished soon after and finally

tried on the charge of being accessory to the murder of 'Abdu'l-'Azi'z

though it was generally believed that the Sultan committed suicide

(op. cit. pp. 90-1). Still Midhat was known to be an opponent

of 'Abdu'l-Hamfd's autocratic rule and this charge was found suffi-

cient to lead to his imprisonment and probably, to his subsequent

assassination (op. cit. cli. xiii).

TREATY OF SAN STEFAKO 103

of it was a successful attempt to checkmate the

Conference and nothing more.

Russia then declared war (April, 1877) which was

concluded by the treaty of San Stefano, March 3,

1878. The terms of the treaty were considered to be

too harsh and Russia consented to a revision of it

and so it was abrogated by the treaty of Berlin,

June, 1878. Even this revised treaty was a great

blow to Turkey. Serbia, Montenegro and Rumaniawere formally declared independent. Austria occu-

pied Bosnia and Herzgovina and, after some delaysand a great deal of correspondence, Bulgaria wasdivided into two parts, one autonomous ;

^ the other.

Eastern Rumelia,^ in 1885 was added to Bulgaria.

In 1885, in response to a popular movement, the

two provinces were united, and in 1909 the whole

was recognized as an independent state, on the pay-ment of an indemnity for railways and in lieu of the

tribute previously paid to the Porte. Greece gainedas accession of territory, England was in some

ambiguous way pledged to see that reforms were

1Writinjij in 1900 Odysseus says :

'

In agriculture, manufactures,

commerce, education, literature and military matters they(the Bulgarians) have made enormous strides. It is only necessaryto go westward from Turkey and cross the frontier to see what

twenty years of autonomy have done." Turkey in Europe.p. 351.

8 This province remained subject to the authority of the Sultan,

though it was placed under-a Christian governor and an autono-mous administration.


carried out, and with this in view took possession of

the island of Cyprus, paying to the Sultan an annual

tribute.*

It is true that when peace was restored there was

again some talk of reforms and a parliament was

summoned;but it was soon dissolved and the

constitution was suspended. No further attemptsat reform were made, and whatever were the

obligations England took upon herself after the

treaty of Berlin, she never seems to have fulfilled

them. In Armenia the barbarity of the Kurdish

soldiers, known as the Hamidian cavalry, was so

severe that the people rose in revolt, which was put

down with great severity and the most horrible

massacres, resulting in the death of 200,000 people.

Affairs in Crete also were so mismanaged that

Greece began to take action which led to a war with

Turkey in 1897. Europe intervened and Turkey

gained some accession of territory and a \\ ar indem-

nity ;but Crete, though nominally Turkish, was

placed under Prince George of Greece, as High

Commissioner, approved by the Powers. It has

since been ceded to Greece.

The treaty of Berlin had left the Macedonian

question in an unsettled condition. The Muslim

1 Owing to the recent declaration of war with Turkey, by an

Order in Council, dated November 3, 1914, Cyprus has been

annexed to the British empire and the large annual payment as

tribute to the Porte will cease.

'ABDU'L-HAMID II 105

and Christian inhabitants suffered from the incom-

petence and rapacity of the Turkish officials. Theysaw that the neighbouring states were now free and

insurrections broke out. The Powers made various

attempts to solve the difficult problems involved, but

nothing satisfactory resulted. Thus the reign of

'Abdu'l-Hamid proved a most disastrous one for

Turkey. He strove hard to bring about the realiza-

tion of the Pan-Islamic idea— the union of all

Muslims under his leadership as Khalifa;the aboli-

tion of the capitulations {ante p. 61) and a revocation

of all privileges previously granted to non-Muslim

subjects of the Porte. He steadily set his face against

all reform movements, and surrounded by a palace

clique of favourites, centralized all authority in

himself and seriously interfered with the administra-

tion of his ministers. In order to bring the Kurds

under his personal control, he raised fifty-four

squadrons of Kurdish nomads and called them the

Hamidian cavalry. He used them to carry out his

pitiless policy with the Armenians. In all this he

was supported by his Vizier, Said Pasha, who,

however, having offended his master was finally

dismissed.

The next \îzier, Kiamil Pasha, was a wise ruler,

and for some years the state of affairs improved ; but,

in due course, the dislike of the Sultan to anythinglike ministerial independence placed such obstacles

in the way of the administration of the empire that


Kiamil resigned. Other more subservient ministers

were found and the personal autocratic rule of the

Sultan brought more disasters in its train. B}-

means of his spies, he obtained information about

his officials, and no honest independent man had

any prospect of permanence in his office. Massacres,

in Constantinople and in Armenia, revolutions in

Yemen and in Crete, troubles with the Druses and

in the Balkans arising from unwise control—all these

were among the incidents fast bringing Turkey to

ruin. As for a government under such conditions,,

if it had been composed of the most capable states-

men who could have been found in Europe, its

action would have been paralysed under such a

regime. Everv minister had under, or more cor-

rectly over, him a subordinate directly nominated bythe palace. It was the business of the latter

functionar}- to carry out the views prevailing at

Yildiz Kiosk, with or without the approval of his

superior, so that frequent!}', after orders had been

sent out by a minister, instructions of a diametrically

opposite kind were issued by his lieutenant. Amongthe offices within the palace the most important

was the detective and espionage office. An enorm-

ous number of spies were employed. This system,

inaugurated by 'Abdu'l-Hamid, was one of the main

causes of the unhappy state of the country under

his rule. From the encouragement given to secret

reports, whether false or true, no one \N'as safe.

THE YOUNG TURKS 107

The emperor of Germany paid two visits to Con-

stantinople, the second one being in 1898, and the

result was the extension of German influence in

that city, and also the securing of valuable railwayconcessions. A proposal that Turkey should join

the Triple Alliance was not formally accepted, but

the idea was latent and has now been brought into

effect, curiously enough not by the followers of

'Abdu'l-Hamid, but by his enemies—the YoungTurkey party. Then, as now, the wiser Turkish

statesmen held aloof. Few Sultans in the past have

had the opportunities for good which lay before

'Abdu'l-Hamid at the time of his accession, and few

amongst them could have so utterly failed. It was

absolutely impossible that things could go on much

longer in this hopeless way. A change was needed

if the empire was to be saved.

Then came the revolution of 1908, brought about

by the Young Turkey party. The revolt began on

July 22, 1908, and on the following day in Salonica

the Committee of Union and Progress proclaimed a

new constitution. Two days after this the Sultan

much against his will agreed to restore the con-

stitution proposed by Midhat Pasha in 1876, andordered the election of a Chamber of Deputies.Austria now became alarmed lest a reformed Turkeymight require her to evacuate Bosnia and Herzego-vina which she had occupied after the Berlin

Congress in 1878. The matter was finally arranged


l)y Austria annexing these two states and by the

payment to Turkey of ;^2,200,000 as compensationior the Turkish crown lands taken over in these

two countries. How long the Bosnians will remain

under alien Austrian rule, when they see the

marvellous progress, which the other Slav states,

now free, are making, is very doubtful. The result

of the present (1914) great European war will

probably lead to the transfer of these provinces to

Serbia and Montenegro.A counter revolution, connived at by the Sultan,

was organized, but the army under Enver Beymarched to Constantinople, deposed 'Abdu'l-Hamid,

in 1909, and appointed in his place his brother

under the title of ISIuhammad V. Little is known

of the new Sultan to whom no power is given.

'Abdu'l-Hamid is now coniined as a state prisoner

and has time to reflect on his many crimes and

•cruelties.

The advent of the Young Turkey party was hailed

with much satisfaction by all the friends of Turkey.

They saw in the proposed liberal institutions and

promised reforms a prospect for the revival of the

Ottoman empire. A prominent European statesmen

spoke of the movement as having but one end—the

welfare of all Turkish subjects, and the orderly

-establishment of constitutional rule. The most

recent events, however, show that such sanguine

hopes were premature, for it is this very party, rash,

THE YOUNG TURKS 109

misguided and foolish, which has brought Turkeynearer to utter ruin than even the worst of her

Sultans has ever done.

The difficulties before the Young Turks were

very great. They had to contend against the

conservative religious spirit, which is not favourable

to progressive ideas. Islam does not easily lend

itself to essential modifications. These men, edu-

cated in Berlin and Paris, were looked upon as lax

Muslims. \\^hether that was so or not, the suspicion

was current and operative. Nationality and liberty

(watan and hurriyat) were the watchwords of the

new party ;but the old Turk thinks less of the

nation than of the religion and less of freedom than

of submission. His glory is that he esteems Islam

above all else and that as a Muslim he is greater

than as a Turk. In addition to this there was the

political position. In Arabia, Syria and Macedonia

there was much popular discontent requiring strong

but sympathetic treatment, for their grievances were

very real. Every branch of the administration re-

quired re-organization and large sums of money be-

fore any one of them could be made even moderate-

ly efficient. The law had been codified, but was

administered by men paid so badly that bribery

was almost a necessity to them. Everywhere roads,,

bridges and public works were needed and the

treasury was empty. The relations of Turkey with

the great Powers called for much political sagacity


and this quality, as regards foreign affairs, does not

seem to have been prominent amongst the leaders in

the Committee of Union and Progress—that ex-

traordinary power behind the throne, which com-

pelled the government of the day to carry out the

wishes of the Young Turks. In the place of the

personal despotism of 'Abdu'l-Hamid we find the

corporate despotism of a Committee, the constitution

of w^hich is known only to a few. One of the chief

military leaders, Enver Bey, was educated in Berlin

and is said to have married a German lady.

Whether led by him or not, the fact remains that

the Young Turks looked more to Germany than to

the old friends of Turkey, England and France.

They were annoyed because the Powers of the

Triple Entente exercised some protection over Crete,

and this was one among several causes which turned

them towards the Triple Alliance. The history of

the past should have shown them the unwisdom of

taking sides in European politics, but the Turk has

always found it hard to learn a lesson and has

suffered in consequence. One result of this change

•of attitude was that France, hitherto the banker of

Turkey, declined to lend more money.

Turkey is composed of many races, speaking manylanguages and professing various forms of religion.

To rule equitably such a variet}- of races requires

statesmanship of a high order, and an administration

which will safeguard the rights of each community

THE YOUNG TURKS 111

and allow each to develop on its own lines. The

Young Turks made a mistake in attempting to make

Turkish the official language to be used in all

departments, including that of public instruction

throughout the empire. This at once raised up

opposition in Syria where Arabic is the mother tongueand is looked upon by the Muslims there as a sacred

language. The efforts made to substitute the Arabic

character in which Turkish is written for the nation-

al ones in writing the various languages of the

Turkish Balkan provinces was a mistake. It roused

the national spirit in people longing to be free. It

thus became perfectly clear that the new govermentmeant to Ottomanise the whole country. Thus it is

said :—

They wish Albanians, Armenians, Jews, Greeks,

Arabs, Syrians, Kurds, and all the nationalities of

Macedonia, to sink their respective national individualities

into one single nationality—which shall have for its

principal element the Young Turk himself—for choice

speaking the Turkish language, and using the Arabic

alphabet, the only form of writing in which the Turkish

language is ever expressed. In this way alone do they

perceive the possibility of making Turkey strong and

powerful. And as they are at the present moment in

control of the army through which the revolution was

effected, they propose to use force to accomplish this

purpose. Turkey once united, and her army reorgaized,then let those Balkan states which have been broken

piecemeal from the Ottoman empire have a care. Let

everybody have a care, for the Turk will then be as goodas anybody else in Europe or Asia.^

' Dr. Fraser, Persia and Turkey in Revolt, p. 433.


If the Turk had been popular that might have

been done;but he is hated by the Mushm Arabs

and mistrusted by the Christian rayas. The YoungTurks were in this matter ideahsts, with a vision

of one great united Ottoman community, in which

Ottoman language, law, custom and policy should

exist supreme. This showed serious lack of states-

manship and want of administrative experience.

It brought its punishment, for this attempt to crush

out national feelings and aspirations in the Balkans

was the main cause of the recent Balkan war, so

disastrous to Turkey.Great attention was paid to the army, which was

largely trained by German officers ; but the lack of

a supply of intelligent junior officers and incompe-tence in other departments connected with the

army led to its defeat in the first great war it under-

took. Still, after all, the Young Turks kept the

state going, which considering how corrupt it had

been under 'Abdu'l-Hamid was not an easy thing

to do.

In November, 1911, Italy annexed Tripoli. Turkeyrefused to recognize this action and war was declared

between the two countries. By the treaty of Lau-

sanne, October, 1912, Turkey granted autonomyto Tripoli without officially recognising Italy's

sovereignty. This curious method of saving the

face of the Khalifa is shown in the following terms

of the treaty :—

THE BALKAN WAR 113

(i) Italy maintains absolutely the law which declaredher full and entire sovereignty over Lybia, and, in

consequence, denies any form of sovereignty there on the

part of Turkey, whether open or disguised, nominal,effective, or partial. Nor does she consent to such

sovereignty under the form of a territorial concessionmade to Turkey.

(ii) Turkey, on her side, neither impugns nor recognizesthe sovereignty of Italy. She ignores it ; and in that

manner avoids offending against the letter of the Coranlaw which forbids the cession of lands of the Caliph to

the infidel. Italy consents to forego the formal recogni-tion by Turkey, and will be content with procuring a

recognition of her new rights from the Powers.

It will be seen that the Sultan simply ignores the

cession of territory. Italy accepts the position and

does not demand any formal recognition of the

occupation of Tripoli. All parties understand that

Tripoli now belongs to Italy ; but the face of the

Khalifa had to be saved and this is the curious wayof doing it.

In August, 1912, a massacre at Kotchana led to a

strong protest from Bulgaria. The Balkan states—Bulgaria and Serbia—formed an alliance with Greece

and required Turkey to carry out the long-promised

and long-desired reforms in Macedonia. Turkeyrefused to do so and war broke out on October

8, 1912. By the treaty of London, May 30, 1913,

many Turkish provinces passed to the allies, and the

Ottoman possessions in Europe now consist onlyof Constantinople and the vilayet of Adrianople.

8


All her African possessions had been previoul}- lost.

The empire in Asia is still extensive and under good

government might be made highly prosperous ; but

the records of the history of the Ottoman Turks for

many past centuries affords little hope of such a

result.

When the whole civilized world was struck v.ith

great horror at the barbarities of 'Abdu'l-Hamid, the

Kaiser, for purely political purposes, condoned his

brutalities, was his guest for four days, went out of

his way to flatter him and thereby gained certain

concessions, notably those in connexion with the

Baghdad railway ;

^ and now strange to say Germanyretains her influence with the Turkish enemies of

'Abdu'l-Hamid. The result is that Turkey finds it

difficult to get loans from France, except upon the

most stringent conditions. France is therefore looked

upon with disfavour ; but France has no desire to

find funds for Germans in Turkey to spend. Englandis the ally of France and so all her past good deeds

are forgotten, British enterprises are treated with

hostility, and no effort is made to retain even her

regard. Germany has now more than recovered the

position she held in 'Abdu'l-Hamid's time, and has

drawn, at least, the Young Turkey Part}' towards

the Triple Alliance. Austria practically stole the

provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but even that

1 For an excellent account of this concession, see, Valentine

Chirol. The Middle Eastern Question, chapters xviii, xix, xx.

GERMAN INFLUENXE 115

offence is now condoned by the Young Turks, as

she is the ally of Germany.In the histor\- of the Muslim world chauvinism

has played a great part. The chauvinism of the

Arabs ruined the Umayyad Khalifate; it worked

evil in Muslim Spain ;

' and now it is apparent in

the Turkish army under the control of the Committeeof Union and Progress. The influence of Germanyhas stimulated this spirit of chauvinism, of which

she possesses so large a share ; it has encouraged

amongst the Young Turks an arrogant militarism

which seeks to control the political destinies of the

country. Thus gradually the gulf has widened

between Turkey and her real friends—nations which

in the Crimean war spent millions of money and gave

up the lives of thousands of their heroic sons for the

safety of Turkey ; all this and many other kindly

deeds are forgotten and Turkey, controlled by the

Germanized militar}- party, ranges itself on the side

of the common enemies of her benefactors.

Thus, at last, unless the more sober-minded leaders,

the real statesmen in Turkey, and the Sultan himself

can control Enver Bey and his associates, now

completely hypnotized by German wiles, the decayof Turkey, which has been going on as we have

seen for centuries, will proceed at an accelerated

pace.

1 See Sell, Muslim Conquests in Spain (CL-S.). p. 6.


On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdi-

nand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary,

and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevô in

Bosnia. The Government of Austria-Hungary pre-

sented a note to Serbia on July 23, alleging that

these murders were caused, or at least encouraged,

by Serbian officers and officials. This note made

demands on Serbia which no self-respecting indepen-

dent kingdom could concede, and required a reply

within forty-eight hours. Serbia replied conceding

most of the Austrian demands, but objecting to some

of the most extreme among them ; whereupon on

July 28 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

Russia then mobilized a part of its army, and im-

mediately Germany also mobilized and invaded

French territory and declared war on Russia. On

August 4, Germany violated the neutrality of Bel-

gium which she had signed a treaty to protect, and

Great Britain, after twelve hours' notice, declared

war on Germany.Soon after the war began, two German warships,

the Goeben and Breslaii, in order to avoid capture

entered the Straits of the Dardenelles. Accordingto international law, the Ottoman Government

should have ordered them to go out of neutral

waters within a reasonable time and, if they failed

to do so, should have dismantled and interned themuntil the close of the war

;after which they would

have been returned to Germanv. The Turkish

POWER OF ENVER BEY 117

Government did nothing of the kind, but, on the

pretence that it had purchased the ships from

Germany, retained the German officers and crew in

its own naval service. It further imported a large

number of mechanics and quantities of warlike

stores from Germany. The British naval instructors

in the service of the Porte were superseded, and the

whole naval administration passed into the hands of

German officers, under the supreme control of Enver

Bey, the Minister for War who, a Pole by extraction

and a German by sympath},' was the leader of the

Turkish pro-German party. The British Govern-

ment protested against this breach of neutrality, and

the Grand Vizier again and again said that the

Germans would be dismissed. There seems to be

some reason to suppose that he was really anxious

to avoid a rupture with Great Britain, but it is

equally clear that the masterful spirit of Enver Beydominated the government and that neither the

Grand Vizier, nor the Minister of the Interior, nor

even the Sultan himself, could withstand the

imperious demands of the Minister for War and the

Germans in Constantinople, who had practically

become the dominant rulers of the city.

The war party proceeded to mobilize troops, to

prepare for the invasion of Egypt, to bribe the

Bedawin to warlike action, and to demand the

» Dillon, A Scrap of Paper, p. 68.


departure of British ships from Mohammerah, a

Persian port over which the Turks had no authority.

All the time the Grand Vizier protested that he

desired peace and made many excuses about the

delay in dismissing the officers and crews of the

German ships. Then followed the detention of

British merchant ships in Turkish waters, attemptsto stir up disaffection in Persia, India, Egypt, and

amongst the Samisis in Africa, violent attacks in

Turkish newspapers, now subsidized by German

gold, against England declaring that she was the

enemy of Islam; the abolition of the capitulations

and the closing of foreign post offices, and number-

less other acts of a highty provocative character.

The British Government was most patient and

waited week after week for the dismissal of the

Germans. It even, whilst protesting that the

abolition of the capitulations, which were based on

many ancient treaties, and could only be set aside

by mutual consent, expressed its willingness, if the

German officers and crews of the Goeben and

Breslaii were dismissed, to consider, with the allied

Powers, the question of the capitulations, and with

them to come to some arrangement and to with-

draw their extra territorial jurisdiction, as soon as

a scheme of judicial administration which would

satisfy modern conditions was set up.

The subsidized Turkish papers gave the most

misleading information, supplied from German

WAR WITH ENGLAND 119

sources, about the progress of the war. People

were led to believe that victory was certain to the

Germans; which statements, combined with in-

flammatory articles against England, helped to draw

the more thoughtless Turks to the side of Enver

Bey and the war party. It was even said that the

Kaiser had become a Muslim and was fighting for

Islam against Russia.

It soon became clear that, notwithstanding the

Grand ^'izier's assurances to the contrary, the

Goeben and Breslati, flying the Turkish flag, but

manned by German crews and under the commandof German officers, would enter the Black Sea. As

a matter of fact, this did take place. Then, on

October 29, 1914, Turkish torpedo-boats raided

Odessa, sank a Russian gunboat and damagedFrench and Russian ships. The response to this

unwarranted act of hostility was the withdrawal of

the Russian Ambassador from Constantinople and

the despatch of Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign

Minister, to the British Ambassador at Con-

stantinople, of the following instructions :—

Sir Edward Grey to Sir L. Mallet

Foreign Office

October 30, 1914

In view of hostile acts that have been committed,the Russian Government have instructed the Russian

Ambassador to leave Constantinople with all his staff.


Should His Excellenc}' leave, you should yourselfsend in a note to the Sublime Porte to say that His

Majesty's Government have learnt with the utmost

surprise of the wanton attacks made upon open andundefended towns of a friendly country without anywarning and without the slightest provocation, and that

these acts constitute an unprecedented violation of the

most ordinary rules of international law, usage, and

comity. Russia has shown the utmost patience andforbearance in face of repeated violations of the rules of

neutrality by Turkey, and in face of most provocative

acts, amounting in reality to acts of hostility, and in

this attitude of restraint her allies. Great Britain and

France, have co-operated. It is evident that there is nochance of a return to a proper observance of neutralityso long as the German naval and military missions

remain at Constantinople, and such a situation cannotbe prolonged.

Unless, therefore, the Turkish Government will divest

themselves of all responsibility for these unprovokedacts of hostility by dismissing the German militaryand naval missions, and fulfilling their often repeated

promises about the German crews of the Goeben and

Brcslaii, and will give you a satisfactory reply to this

effect within twelve hours from the date of the deliveryof the note, you should ask for your passports and leave

Constantinople with the staff of the embassy.

On November 4, Tewfik Pasha, the Turkish

Ambassador in London, applied for his passports

and a state of war commenced.

A perusal of the White Book ' from which the

above facts are taken shows how patient the British

1 Miscellaneous No. 13 (1914) Correspondence RespectingEvents leading to the Rupture of Relations with Turkey.

IJRITISH F0RHP:ARANCE 121

Government was under all the equivocations, delaysand hostile actions. Until the very last the Am-bassador hoped that the Grand Vi;:ier would be able

to control the fiery and ambitious Minister for War.

Enver Be}-, supported b}' his German friends, be^

came the real ruler of Turkey. The Sultan and his

Vizier, assuming that their expressions of a desire

for peace were genuine, have proved themselves to

be quite powerless. The history of the past shows

that the Ottoman Empire prospered only whenSultan and Viziers were strong men

; when they are

weak and helpless disorder and anarchy must follow.

Turkey had received the most complete assurance

of British friendship. Sir Edward Grey in his letter

of August 18, 1914, states the case to the British

Ambassador at the Porte thus :—

I told the Turkish Ambassador, who had expresseduneasiness as to our intentions towards Turkey, that

Turkey would have nothing to fear from us, and that

her integrity would be preserved in any conditions of

peace which affected the Near East provided that she

preserved a real neutrality during the war, made theBreslau and Goeben entirely Turkish by sending awaythe German crews of these vessels, and gave all orduiaryfacilities to British merchant vessels.

The time will come, if it has not alread\- done so,,

when the more intelligent Turkish people will regret

the culpable weakness of their government, for the

loss to Turkey will be very great. The attempt of

the war party to stir up a Jihad, or Holy War, has


utterly failed. Under no possible interpretation of

Muhammadan law could a Jihad in the present

circumstances be proclaimed, nor could it possibly

be made an obligatory duty (fardu'l-'ain) on anyMuslim to obey such a call to arms. In fact, the

conduct of the Turkish Government has been

condemned by all responsible rulers throughout the

Islamic world, and the Muslim soldiers of Russia,

France and England are fighting loyally and valiant-

ly in defence of their respective empires. They, at

least, have no desire to come under the despotic

rule of the German military party, or to aid Turkeyin her folly in so doing. It is a sad sight to goodMuslims to see their Khalifa thus helpless in the

hands of unwise and unpatriotic advisers.

One of the first results of the present war was that

Egypt, which from the time of Salim, has been ruled by

Turkey or has been under her suzerainty, became free

from all Turkish control real or imaginary. We have

seen how Muhammad 'Ali became Viceroy of Egypt{ante p. 90), though compelled to pay a large an-

nual tribute as a sign of the Sultan's suzerainty. In

January, 1863, Isma'il Pasha became Viceroy. Hewas an ambitious man and sought to weaken the

ties which still bound Egypt to Turkey. The

Sultan 'Abdu'l-'Aziz paid a visit to Cairo and as the

result of the conferences then held, and aided by large

bribes to the Grand Vizier, the Porte allowed the title

of Khedive to be substituted for that of Vicero}'. The

FALL OF THE KHEDIVE 123

term Khedive means '

great prince',' man of author-

ity ', and though as a title it is less dignified than that

of Sultan, it is more honourable than that of Viceroy.

At the same time the Porte allowed the hereditary

succession from father to son in the Khedival

dynasty, but in return for the concession raised the

annual tribute from ;^400,000 to ;^750,000. Fromtime to time there has been friction between the two

countries and Turkey, as suzerain, has tried to claim

power and influence which could not be accorded or

allowed to her.

In a fit of madness the Khedive 'Abbas Hilme,

now in Constantinople, has thrown in his lot with

Enver Bey and the Germans, and has therefore

forfeited all right to his rule in Egypt, of which

country he thus declares himself the enemy. TheBritish Government at once declared Egypt a British

Protectorate and has appointed Prince Husain, an

uncle of the late Khedive, as Sultan of Egypt under

the suzerainty and the powerful protection of Great

Britain. His Majesty King George V has sent him

the following gracious and encouraging message :—

On the occasion of Your Highness entering on your

high office, 1 desire to convey an expression of my most

sincere friendship and an assurance of my unfailing sup-

port in safeguarding the integrity of Egypt and securing

her future well-being and prosperity. Your Highness has

been called upon to undertake the responsibilities of your

high office at a grave crisis in the national life of Egypt.


I feel convinced that you will be able, with the co-opera-

tion of your Ministers and the protectorate of Great

Britain, successfully to overcome all influences, which are

seeking to destroy the independence of Egypt and the

wealth, liberty and happiness of its people.

This important change in the relation of Egyptto Turkey has been well received by all classes of

the Egyptian people. All connexion with Turkeynow ceases, the Porte will have no further claim to

the large annual tribute, and the Ottoman Sultans

will lose whatever dignity the office of suzerain of

Egypt afforded them. Egypt will no\\- be free to

carry out many reforms, to the execution of which

there have been many hindrances, and under its

new Sultan will enter upon a period of real progress.

The Germans have thus, though quite unwittingly^rendered a very real service to that wonderful land.

I have now traced the rise of a great empire from

very small beginnings, and its gradual decline from

a high position to its present almost hopeless condi-

tion. For a long while the Ottoman empire wasa terror to south-eastern Europe ; in more recent

times it has been the despair of European states-

men. When its Sultans led victorious armies and

ravaged man}- lands, the empire maintained its

military domination;when these Sultans ceased

to be leaders in warfare and spent their boyhoodand early manhood in the secluded life of the

harem they lost their virilit\- and the empire became

THE FAILURE OF TURKEY 125

weak. As a conquering people the Ottomans

showed some measure of imperial strength ; whenthe tide of conquest turned and the state required

men of broader sympathies and more liberal

vision—statesmen in the best sense of the term—their incapacity was revealed. Called upon to rule

over nations of many races and creeds they sadly

failed; granted an entrance into the circle of civi-

lized and progressive states, when administrative

ability and a readiness to adapt themselves to a

changing order of things was demanded, they have

failed in a still greater degree.

Turkey has survived longer than the vigorous

Khalifates of Damascus and of Baghdad, longer

even than the brilliant Khalifate in Spain ; Init it

has not been able to keep its position amongst the

progressive nations of the West. They have long

since passed away ;and the causes which led to the

decadence and disappearance of these once mightyKhalifates are Working slowly, but with equal cer-

tainty towards the complete dissolution of the Otto-

man empire. Muslim states seem to be able to reach

a certain standard of greatness ;but there is some-

thing in their law and polity which places an effect-

ive barrier to a continued rise in the scale of

national progress in its highest forms, and to a

lasting prosperity. The reason for this is not far

to seek. It lies in their contemptuous disregard of

all non-Muslim peoples, and in the rigid character


of their sacred law. As expounded by its official

interpreters that law is the most perfect the world

has ever seen, and is therefore final. It thus be-

comes a great barrier to the highest developmentof a nation, which from its position in Europe is

bound to hold intercourse and to have diplomatic,

commercial and social relations with other nations,

whose laws are more flexible and whose constitu-

tions are progressive.

In these circumstances, a nation, dominated bylaws and polity of this character, reaches a state

which is like the association of sterility with vita-

lity—the contact of the dead with the living. If

Turkey is to have a future it must be in Asia and

not in Europe, where it has for many years and in

a multitude of ways proved a disastrous failure.

APPENDIX A

THE OTTOMAN SULTANS

128 APPENDIX A

NAME

Suleyman II

Ahmad II

Mustafa II

Ahmad III

Mahmud I

'Uthman III

Mustafa III

'Abdu'l-Hamid I

Salim III

Mustafa IV

Mahmud II

'Abdu'l-Mejid ..

'Abdu'l-'Aziz

Murad V'Abdu'l-Hamid II

Muhammad V

DATE OF

ACCESSION

1687

1691

1695

1703

1730

1754

1757

1773

1789

1807

1808

1839

1861

1876

1876

1909

APPENDIX B

OTTOMAN SLA\'EKY AS AN

IMPERIAL ASSET

The practice of the 'Abbasid Khalifas, the EgyptianMamluk Sultans, and the Muslim rulers in Spain

followed the tendency of all oriental Governments,which rest on force, to rely on sla\es brought from a

distance or otherwise obtained. The Ottoman Sultans

developed this practice still further by le\ying a tribute

of children from their Christian subjects, and thus they

raised the whole system of slavery into an institution

closely bound up with the military and civil administra-

tion of the empire, the prosperity of which was largely

indebted to it. Sultan Muhammad II, the Conqueror

made this quite clear in these strikmg words :

'

Our em-

pire is the House of Islam, from father to son the lampof our empire is kept bright with oil from the hearts of

the infidels.' '

Some slaves were captives made in war ; some were

purchased or received as gifts ; but the majority when

mere lads were forcibly taken from Christian homes.

This inhuman custom set aside the finer instincts of

human nature, took no heed of parental affection,

1 Quoted in Lyber, Ottoman Empire in the time of Suleymdn(Harvard, 1912), p. 64.

9

130 APPENDIX B

disregarded the breaking up of family life, and ignored

the rights of parents to bring up their children in their

own law and religion. The lads thus taken were

brought up as Muslims, and kept in the status of slaves

and were under the absolute control of the Sultan.

This tribute of young boys was raised chiefly in the

Balkans and in this manner. The country was divided

into districts, and a capable official was appointed to

travel about in each district with instructions to send to

Constantinople a fixed number of the most vigorous and

promising of the youths he could find. He required

the priest of a village to furnish him with a list of

baptized lads, between the ages of twelve and twenty,

from whom he selected the sturdiest and handsomest

ones until the required number was made up.

On arrival at Constantinople they were carefully

trained for the military or the civil service. They were

taught to look up to the Sultan as their lord, who could

promote them to great honour and grant them posts of

distinction, should they show^ by their devotion to him

that they were worthy of such treatment. An Italian

writer,^ who in the reign of Suleyman II visited Con-

stantinople, tells us that they were entertained in a

large and spacious building under the charge of eunuchs,

and richly clothed. In due course they were appointed

by the Sultan spahi-oghlans (cavalry subalterns) or

even to higher ranks in the army, or became Janissaries

or Kapurjis (wardens of the gate).

' Probably Benedetto Ramberli whose work was published in

Venice in 1545. See Lyber, Ottoman Empire in the time of

Suleyman, Appendix I.

APPENDIX B 131

This careful system of education and the glittering'

prospects held out to them soon made the lads forget

the homes of their childhood and inspired them with

personal devotion to the Sultan, who often found in

them his best servants and most valiant soldiers. Bytheir conversion to Islam they became naturalized

subjects of a new nation, and members of a fresh social

and religious system. Separated entirely from the faith

and traditions of their forefathers they became inspired

with a new spirit and entered cheerfully upon a fresh

life. This large annual addition to the ranks of Islam

increased the wealth and power of the state. Thus'

the oil from the hearts of the infidel'

kept the lampof empire burning and the empire became possessed of

an asset of great value.

If we set aside all moral considerations, there is

no doubt that for many centuries the system by its

provision of warriors and efficient administrators was a

real source of strength. It is true that the time came

when the military section became turbulent and had

to be suppressed, but for many centuries the Ottoman

empire owed much of its prestige and power to menof Christian birth thus alienated from their kith and kin.

The pure Turk is not, as a rule, a good administrator

and some of the ablest servants of the State were

renegades, or of non-Ottoman origin. Enver Bey is not

a wise statesman, but he is a vigorous, masterful manand he is of Polish extraction.

Suleyman 1 1 was one of the greatest men the Turks

have produced. He knew his people, and how dim the

lamp of empire would become, unless fed with oil from

132 APPENDIX B

the heart of the infidel or, to drop the metaphor, how

necessary it was, by some means or other, to strengthen

the administration of the state by importing into

its body poHtic men of a more virile character and of

a more reliable disposition than the ordinary Turk.

To gain and retain this valuable asset, the system of

slavery which I have described became an important

institution of the Ottoman empire.

APPENDIX C

OTTOMAN LITERATURE

The Turks, at the outset of their career, were menof the sword rather than of the pen, and though they

despised the Persians as a people less martial than

themselves, they accepted entire their literary systemand so based Ottoman literature upon a Persian model.

A number of learned Sufis had their home at Qonya,

(Iconium) the capital of the Seljuks. The famous

mystical poet, Jalalu'd-din Rumi, came there as a lad

and soon became the most famous of them all. He is

known throughout the East by his great work, the

MatJinavi, on the form and style of which Ottoman

poetry has been based. The style was simple, but in

due time gave place to one in which*

curiosities of

imagery gradually replaced the old straightforward

speech '. Stanley Lane-Poole says :

'

If we except the

long narrative poems, the range of subjects sung by the

muses of Persia and Turkey is very limited. Love,

with its woes and joys, naturally and by right assumes

the first place ; then we have the charms of the spring-

tide, the sweet song of the nightingale, the beauty of

the flowers, and other delightful things of Nature,

generally with the undertone of religious mysticism

throughout. And that is well nigh all.''

\ Turkey, p. 302.

134 APPENDIX C

The Ottoman poets of the early period showed no

originaHty but simply copied and followed all they

could find of excellence in the poetry of the Persians :

*

The prose in its higher flights is generally bombastic,

often involved, and like the poetry, bristles with equi-

voques and other verbal tricks, which though frequently

ingenious, are more or less trivial and always give a

forced and unnatural appearance to the style.'^ In the

reign of Sultan Suleyman (1520-66) two poets, Fuzuli

and Baki, arose and introduced a new era. Fuziili

was a writer of eminence. He still conforms to the

Persian style, but is more original than any of his prede-

cessors. Fifty years later Nafi of Erzerum elaborated

a style for himself, but being a satirist and having the

imprudence to exercise his wit on men of influence he

was executed by the order of Sultan Murad IV. In

each succeeding age authors in prose and poetry arose,

some of whom were eminent, but the literature as a

whole still remained under the domination of the

Persian influence.

A change, however, has now come over it. It began

in 1859 with a translation of some French poetry into

Turkish, thus showing that good literature was to be

found outside the world of Islam. In 1879 'Abdu'l-

Haqq Ahmad Beg published some poems in a simple

style and according to Western forms. Others followed

and a revolt from the long-established influence of

Persian poetry commenced.'

Some thirty years ago a

wonderful change began to come over Turkish literature,

and this change has ever since been growing yearly


APPENDIX C 135

more and more marked, altering the whole tone and

spirit, as well as the external form of Ottoman literary

work. . . , The change is a result of the study of the

French language and literature which has become gen-

eral only within the last twenty years. Marvellous,

indeed, have been its effects. In poetry likewise

Western forms have well-nigh superseded the mono-

rhythmic ghazals and qasidas of the olden time. Ofcourse all these changes have not been effected with-

out opposition ; many Turks of the old school, admirers

of the Persian style and haters of all things Western,

opposed them bitterly, and some oppose them still ; but

the battle has virtually been fought, the victory won,and for good or ill Europe has conquered Asia, Paris

has replaced Shiraz.'^

The new learning, full of western thought and ideas,

has been an important factor in the formation of the

Young Turkey Party. One of the best informed Euro-

pean students of Turkish literature, the late E. J. W.Gibb, saw clearly how its improvement would affect the

whole position of affairs. He says :

'

This period of

twenty years (1859-79) is thus the turning-point in the

evolution of the new civilization of Turkey ; all that had

gone before since the days of the martyred Salim has

been leading up to the revolution now accomplished ; whatfollows is its development.'

'^ The repressive measures

of the late Turkish Government sent into exile menw^hose mental horizon had thus widened, but the lea\en

was at work, the intellectual condition of the best men

1 S. Lane-Poole, Turkey, pp. 322-3.-History of Ottoman Poetry (1907), vol. v, pp. 18-20.

136 APPENDIX C

was being profoundly clianged, a high sense of duty was

being created and a true patriotism was being formed.

The exiles from amongst the literary men had to be

joined during the last twenty years by men from the

various professions, and some nobles, exiled by the

jealousy and the fear of the palace clique, before any

practical steps were taken to set aside the despotism of

*Abdu'l-Hamid ;but it must never be forgotten that the

movement towards reform, which it was hoped the

Young Turkey Party would bring about, owes not a little

of its force to those learned authors, who in modern days

have reconstructed the literature, widened its boundaries,

and brought it into living contact with the West. Thus

it seemed as if the'

new learning'

would become a

powerful force in the social emancipation, in the religious

freedom, and in the political elevation of the Turkey of

to-day. All these hopes and aspirations, however, have

not been realized, for the Young Turks by their arrogant

militarism have not only retarded the reform move-

ment, but seem likely to bring about the ruin of the

empire.

INDEX'Abdu'l-'Aziz, 101, 122

'Abdu'l-Hamid I, 78, 80

'Abdu'I-Hamid II, 102, 105, 106, 107, 108, 115,

136

'Abdu'l-Mejid, 93

Adrianople, 11 ; treaty of, 18

Ahmad I, 68

Ahmad 111,78

'Ala'u'd-din, 5, 6

Andrea Doria, 57

Angora, battle of, 2, 23

Apostasy, 96

Barbarossa, 49, 56, 57

Bayazid I, 12, 13, 20, 22, 23, 25

Bosnia, 28, 39, 114

Brankovich, George, 28

Cantacuzemus (Emperor), 9, 10

Carlowitz, treaty of, 76

Catherine (Empress), 77, 80

Chalderan, battle of, 48

Chengiz Khan, 2

Constantinople, 9; battle of, 33-7

Corsairs, 49, 52, 57

Crete, 104, 110

Crimean war, 99

138 INDEX

Egypt, 122, 123, 124

Enver Bey, 108, 110, 115, 117, 121

Ertoghul, 3

Feudal system, 43, 85

Germany, 110, 115, 117, 118

Golden Horde, 1

Greece, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91

Hatt-i-Humayun, 99

Hatt-i-Sharif, 95, 100

Hulagu Khan, 1

Hungary, 28, 29, 30, 32, 39

Janissaries, 7, 8, 12, 85, 86, 92, 130

Jem, Prince, 45-7

Kaiser, 114, 119

Karageorge, 81, 82, 83

Kaynarji, treaty of, 79

Khedive, 122, 123

Kossovo, battle of, 15

Lausanne, treaty of, 112

Lepanto, battle of, 65

Literature (Ottoman), Appendix C

London, treaty of, 89, 111

Mahmud I, 78

Mahmud II, 71, 84, 85, 86, 90, 91, 92

Mamluks, 2, 48

Midhat Pasha, 107

INDEX 139

Milosh Kobilo\-ich, 13

Milosh Obronovitch, 81

Mohacs, battle of, 53

Mongols, 1, Z

Muhammad I, 24, 26

Muhammad II, 29, 31, 12, 37, l^, 41, 42, 44, 45,

49, 51, 129

Muhammad III, 66, 67

Muhammad I\', 73, 76

Muhammad \, 91

Muhammad 'All, 88, 90, 91

Murad I, 11, 12, 13, 15

Murad II, 27, 29, 39

Murad III, 65, 66

Murad IV, 69, 71, 78

Mustafa I, 68

Mustafa II, 77

Mustafa III, 79

Mustafa IV, 83

Navarino, battle of, 89

Nicopolis, battle ^^ 19

Orkhan, 1, 5, 6, 10, IT—^

Paris, treaty of, 99

Rhodes, 41, 51, 51, b^

Salim I, 47, 48, 50

Salim II, 64, 65

Salim III, 80, 83

San Stefano, treaty of, 103

i'Ô INDEX

Scipio Cicala, 67, 68

Seljuks, 1, 3, 4

Serbia, 12, 14, 15, 28, 30, 31, 81, 82, 83, 103, 113,116

Skanderbeg, 32, 39, 40

Sobieski, King of Poland, 72, 74, 75

Stephen, King of Serbia, 18, 19, 28Stratford Canning, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 100

Suleyman I, 25

Suleyman II, 50, 54, 56, 5S, 59, 60, 61, 62, 130

Tanzimat, 95, 99

Timur, 20, 22, 23

Tripoli, 112, 113

'Uthman, 3, 4, 5

Varna, battle of, 31

Vienna, first siege of, 55; second siege of, 73,

74, 75

Young Turkey Party, 107, 108, 114, 136

Young Turks, 109, 110, 111, 112, 115, 136

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